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Mansour shed light on several aspects of Khattab's personal life in an interview with Arab News. Khattab's real name was Samir Sa­leh Abdullah Al­-Suwailem. “There were two differing reports on how his brother was killed”, said al-Suwailem. According to one report, he died five minutes after opening a poisoned letter given to him by a trusted aide. The second report says that he was poisoned at a private party held about a month earlier.

Samir, who was born in Arar, a northern border city in Saudi Ara­bia in 1969, a brilliant student who scored 94 percent in the sec­ondary school examination.

Unlike other family members, he used to evince more interest in Islamic periodicals and tapes. He was very much impressed by the history of the second Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) and therefore accepted the title Khattab. He joined a technical training conducted by Aramco. He planned to con­tinue his studies in the United States. Mansour could not give any specific reason for Samir's sudden change of mind about his plan to go to the United States. He joined the Afghan Ar­abs fighting the Russians at the age of 17 in 1987.

Mansour explained how Samir conceived the idea of going to Chechnya after watching a news broadcast on Afghan TV. The news broadcast showed several Chechen groups: wearing headbands with "No god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger­" written on them. They shout­ed Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Sa­mir was curious of the jihad in Chechnya and decided to go there. But he did not know how to get there and the map he bought did not show Chechnya on it. So he set out to Baku in Azerbaijan which is close to Chechnya.

While he was making inquiries on how to reach Chechnya, he re­ceived a letter from Fathi Abu Sayyaf, a Chechen of Jordanian origin describing­ the land, ‘'a man who enters it is lost and one who gets out of it is like a reborn."

Somehow or other, he managed to reach Chechnya, first entered as a TV reporter. He met many people and interviewed many of them of their understanding and perception of jihad. His proficiency in Arabic. Russian, English, and Pashtu helped him mix with all kinds of people. In his travels he also met Shamil Basayev.

It was about this time that he met an old Chechen woman who stressed the need for jihad against the Russians. She told him con­fidently: "We want them to quit our and so that we can return to Is­lam''

When asked how she would help in a jihad against Rus­sians, her reply was that she possessed only a jacket and she would donate it for the cause of Allah.

Suwailam said his brother sobbed until "his beard became wet with his tears", the meeting was a turning point in his life. Khhattab's actions were based on strong principles drawn from the Holy Qur'an and the Sun­nah of the Prophet. The ob­jective of jihad is to the es­tablishment of the religion of Al­lah, there is no negotiation with the enemy, the fight should not end until the enemy's threat was totally removed, jihad does not de­pend on the life of a leader, lead­ership does not mean comfortable position, and unity is the most im­portant requisite for fighting against Russia. He also stressed the need for treating civilians gent­ly and not harming them.

“Samir was seeking mar­tyrdom for the past 14 years”, Man­sour said. “He failed to achieve it in Afghanistan, then he sought it in Tajikistan. He was again dis­appointed, so went to Chechnya where finally Allah granted it to him”, the brother said with pride.

Samir was married to a Dagistani woman and had three children.

by Mowaffaq Al-Nowaiser (AN)

Note: He was martyred on the night of March 19-20, 2002

Labels: Chechnya, Tokoh