Third Time for the ID

The third time is the charm. 26th of September and a number of other newspapers are now reporting that Sunday’s suicide bomber has been identified as Abd al-Rahman Mahdi Ali Qasim al-‘Ujayri. (I’m following the Yemen Observer’s vowelling on the name, maybe mistakenly.)

The 26th of September also reprints what it says is al-‘Ujayri’s letter to his mother on page two. The back page has a list and picture of 12 individuals that the Yemeni government is seeking in connection with the attack, including the 25-year-old ‘Amr Mushin al-Mihlfi, whom the government claims recruited al-‘Ujayri.

Much of al-‘Ujayri’s story is remarkably similar to that of Muhammad al-‘Umda, who recently gave an interview to Sada al-Malahim about his road to jihad. Al-‘Umda, also known by the kunya Abu Ghrayb, grew up in the same neighborhood of Taizz as did al-‘Ujayri and like al-‘Ujayri he spent time at an Islamic center in Taizz – although I believe al-‘Umda’s training came at the al-Furqan Institute run by al-Maqtari, which has since been shut down.