Omar al-Faruq

Omar al-Faruq (; 1969 – 25 September 2006), also spelled or al-Farouq or al-Farooq, born Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammed Ahmad, was an Islamic militant with high-profile connections with Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia.

Biography

Born in Iraq. Al-Faruq was believed to have joined Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s where he was trained in Afghanistan. Soon after he rose up through the ranks into becoming one of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants. US authorities believed Al-Faruq was behind the bomb and terror attacks that targeted embassies and thus, ordered his arrests when he was detected to have been entering Indonesia. After being captured in Bogor by Indonesian special forces in 2002, he was immediately handed over to the United States. Al-Faruq's capture was done using information derived from the capture of Abu Zubaydah. After his arrests, Al-Faruq later on revealed information about a plot to bomb a series of embassies and diplomatic compounds all across Southeast Asia, giving rise to the "yellow alert" of 10 September 2002.