Terror organization: Saudi Hezbollah;

Status: Fugitive terrorist;

Role: On June 25, 1996, members of Saudi Hezbollah detonated a tanker truck containing plastic explosives in the parking lot of the Khobar Towers, a residential compound for US military forces. The explosion almost destroyed the building near the parking lot, killing 19 American soldiers and a Saudi citizen, and injuring hundreds of people of different nationalities.
Yaqoub was one of the masterminds of the attack.

He was in contact with operatives from Hezbollah and Quds Force before the attack to receive orders from them.

On June 21, 2001, a US federal grand jury indicted El Yacoub and 13 other people in connection with the attack.

Location: Unknown;

Born: October 16, 1966;

Place of Birth: Tarut, Saudi Arabia;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: Saudi Arabia;

Known also as: Ibrahim Al-Yacoub;

Activities:
Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub (Arabic: إبراهيم صالح محمد اليعقوب) (born October 16, 1966; in Qatif, Saudi Arabia) is wanted by the United States government in connection with the June 25, 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on June 21, 2001 on 46 separate criminal counts including murder for his role in the attack, which was led by Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mughassil.

Months after his 2001 indictment in the 1996 attack, Al-Yacoub, then still a U.S. fugitive, was placed on the initial list of the FBI’s top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush on October 10, 2001.

Al Yacoub is alleged to be a member of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or Hizballah Al-Hijaz, meaning Party of God, being led by Al-Mughassil. The group is one of a number of related Hezbollah terrorist organizations operating in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait and Bahrain, among other places, and was outlawed in Saudi Arabia.

A reward of up to $5 million is being offered by the Rewards for Justice Program for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub.

Terrorist Activity

– Khobar Towers plot 1996

The 2001 indictment traces the carefully organized 1996 bomb plot back to on or about 1993 when Al-Yacoub was part of a team instructed by Al Mughassil to begin surveillance of Americans in Saudi Arabia, including at the location of Khobar Towers as early as 1994.

Al-Yacoub remained one of the planners of the attack on Khobar Towers through at least early June 1996. The cell finalized plans on the evening of June 25, 1996, for the attack that night. In the subsequent blast, 19 American servicemen were killed, and 372 were wounded.

Following the terrorist attack, the leaders fled the Khobar area and Saudi Arabia using fake passports.

The United States indicts that Ibrahim Al-Yacoub was also heavily involved in the recruitment of new terrorist members, assisting and executing terror attacks.

Terrorist Liaison

Al-Yacoub is also said to have worked as a liaison between his organisation and the Lebanese and Iranian branches of Hezbollah, especially information transfer.