Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Ahmed Abdulrahman Shehab Ahmed Shehab, known as “Abdulrahman Al Sharqi” was unknown to media until ISIS declared he was killed in Iraq on Tuesday (October 14^th, 2014). Who is this terrorist that the US government placed under the terrorism list on June 17^th, 2012?

In January 2007, the Bahraini government issued an arrest order against Ahmed Shehab along with four other suspects with Adel Saleh among them. The security authorities declared in a statement that they dismantled a 5-member-cell within the 11 suspects in joining Al Qaeda. However, the public prosecution charged them with “supporting and financing a group that exercises terrorist actions, although being familiar with the group actions, and engaging in hostile acts against a foreign country.” The public prosecution also charged them for “joining and cooperating with an overseas group that uses terrorism and its training as a way to commit actions against a foreign country.” “The suspects were military trained to use weapons and bombs aiming at applying them in committing terrorism actions.’

In 2009, Ahmed Shehab was convicted in absentia for his terrorist activity and was sentenced to 5 years in prison and Interpol issued a red notice against him. The Bahraini high criminal court ruled that another suspect in Ahmed’s same case be detained under the charge of “financing Al Qaeda for a year”. The court also "ordered in absentia to detain the second and third (one of them is Syrian) for 5 years.” In addition, it highlighted in the case’s merits that “the first suspect (Bahraini) embraced the Takfiri ideology and held contact with some elements that belong to Al Qaeda overseas. He is active in financing that organization. He has also been to Iran along with another suspect, who was already sentenced in January 2007.” The public prosecution’s investigations showed that the suspects “gave money to the organization’s leader. Ahmed then travelled alone in March and May 2007 to deliver money to a leader in Al Qaeda.” The main suspect was arrested before leaving Bahrain International airport on June 9^th 2007.

A former correspondence  published within the WikiLeaks documents leaked on May 11^th 2009 between the US embassy in Manama and the US department of State, which Bahrain Mirror translated, stated that the US ambassador met with the attorney general Ali Fadhel Al Buainain to express his concerns about the possibility of issuing a royal pardon for the sake of the suspects in the “5-member-cell”. These included the Bahraini, Ahmed Shehab, and the Syrian, Al Khattab, in particular as happened with the suspect in the same case, Adel Saleh who is banned from travelling. 

The correspondences stated that the US ambassador met twice with the Bahraini secretary for foreign affairs in April 2009 to express his concerns regarding the royal pardon for Adel Saleh, Shehab’s friend. The US ambassador also met with the Bahrain Defence Force leader and the ministries of commerce and finance for the same purpose.

In May 2009, the US ambassador along with the embassy’s political and economic counselor met with the attorney general Ali Fadhel Al Buainain and repeated his concerns regarding the royal pardon for the sake of Adel Saleh. He asked about what the Bahraini government is going to with Saleh and inquired about the two defendants in absentia; Ahmed Shehab and Khattab.

Al Buainain affirmed, according to a WikiLeaks document, that Saleh has been set free with a royal pardon on April 11^th 2009 along with 178 detainees. Saleh was released 32 days before serving his one year in prison punishment. However, Al Buainain assured the ambassador that “Ahmed Abdulrahman Shehab” and the other Syrian suspect “Khattab” will not be granted any royal pardon and that the Bahraini government is communicating with Interpol to issue an arrest notice against them. The US ambassador added that despite Al Buainain knowing that Khattab and Shehab are in Afghanistan, the interference of the Interpol is crucial to impede their movements.

The US ambassador said that Al Buainain clarified that Saleh, who was released with a royal pardon, will remain banned from travelling and that the national security service had confiscated his passport and still monitors his movements and activities. The US ambassador commented at the end of his correspondence that through their experience with the Bahraini government, they know that it can control the extremist Sunni groups. We (the embassy) expect that Saleh would be under monitor as Al Buainain said and that the Bahraini authorities will use its ability in threats, inveiglement and family pressure to keep Saleh away from any extremist activities in future, added the ambassador.

The US department declared on July 17^th 2012 that it had enlisted Ahmed Shehab under the black list of terrorists. In its statement, the US department “charged (A.A.A), who trained Al Qaeda members on terrorist techniques and plans, with belonging to Al Qaeda organization to plan to commit terrorist attacks.”

However, on July 18^th 2012, the Director of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation declared that an absentia decision of 5 years in prison was issued against Shehab in 2009 for joining a terrorist organization overseas, whose aim is to commit hostile actions against a foreign country. He added that the Bahraini government circulated about “Shehab” at the member Arab states in General Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior, the Arab Criminal police Department and the Interpol since the date of the rule issuance in 2009.   

On June 19^th, 2013, the US department reaffirmed that it has enlisted Ahmed Shehab, a member in Al Qaeda who has been chased in Bahrain for more than 5 years, under the black list of terrorists.

The US State Department issued a statement through which it “charged Ahmed Abdulrahman Shehab Ahmed Shehab, known as Abdulrahman Al Sharqi, who trained members of Al Qaeda on terrorist techniques and plans, for joining Al Qaeda to plan to commit terrorist attacks.” It also ordered to “confine all his properties and ban any American citizen from making any transaction with him.”

In 2014, U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that Ahmed Shehab is among those enlisted in the economic sanctions list. The US Department of the Treasury categorized Ahmed Shehab within those names included in the economic sanctions for his terrorist activities and stated that his name was added to the list on July 17^th 2012 without mentioning other details according to a report issued from the US Department of the Treasury on September 30^th,.

At 2 a.m. of October 14^th 2014, ISIS declared that Ahmed Shehab was killed. “He died in a bombing of one of the houses after a spy had put a chip in it. The spy was arrested and executed,” said members in ISIS. The member referred to the electronic chips being put to identify the targets for the international coalition’s aircrafts.

The defected lieutenant, Mohamed Isa Al-Binali, who fights for ISIS proclaimed through tweets on Twitter this morning that “Shehab was one of the advocates for the monotheism in Bahrain and that several Bahrainis have studied on his hands and became soldiers in the ISIS.”

Meanwhile, Abu Al-Qasim Al Osaimi, a fighter in ISIS, tweeted on his official twitter account that, “Al Sharqi was the responsible of the foreign affairs of Al Qaeda inAfghanistan, which made America look for him with urgency.”

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