The Tiger Squad; a Saudi hit team

Before the horrific murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul very few people had ever heard of the Firqat el-Nemir, which translates into English as The Tiger Squad.

The squad is said to comprise 50 operatives, the best recruits from different branches of the kingdom's security services who have one thing in common: blind loyalty to their leader, the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman.

The Tiger Squad has one major mission:  Eliminating Saudi dissidents, at home and abroad, in such a way that it would go unnoticed by the media and the international community.

However, the Khashoggi case was a disaster for the group.

According to The New York Times, the death squad has been involved in more than a dozen operations from 2017 - since the rise of Bin Salman - to the killing of Khashoggi. Some members of the squad had received special training in Arkansas as part of US-Saudi cooperation, according to The Washington Post.

The Saudis are very good corporate customers, especially with buying military equipment. I believe they have the third largest military budget in the world. A lot of this equipment just sits rotting in warehouses because the Saudis can't use it or don't know how to use it. They spend more on their military than the Russians do. This buys a lot of friends in the American system and as far as what we've been hearing about this frankly here in the American media, you don't hear much about this at all, that there is some criticism of the Saudis, but by and large, most of these activities are passed over in silence by the mainstream media who are themselves part of the same establishment, which has a very cozy relationship with the Saudis. Also take into account what appears to be a very close, personal partnership between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they've got a lot of cover for these activities where people in powerful places are going to protect them.

James Jatras, Fmr. US Senate Foreign Policy Analyst

The tiger squad

The Tiger Squad It was just after the horrendous murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that this name reached the ears of the public: The Firqat el-Nemr, or The Tiger Squad; a Saudi hit team under the guidance and supervision of this man, Mohammad bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince and de facto leader.

The Tiger Squad

The Tiger Squad's mission is, apparently, killing Saudi critics rather than abducting or arresting them. In the words of a Saudi source, "The Saudi leadership have the belief that arresting critics will mount pressure on them, so that's why they started assassinating them quietly."

The squad's assassination methods vary but the aim is to show the assassinations as accidents such as a car crash or house fire.

Targetting Prince Mansour bin Muqrin

A few hours after  dozens of princes, ministers and business people were locked up in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Tiger Squad  carried out one of its first known operation at home in early November 2017, targeting Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, an opponent of Mohammed bin Salman, when he was fleeing the country by helicopter.

The prince was reportedly killed by Meshal Saad al-Bostani. According to the Middle East Eye source, "Bostani was a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force, and he shot down Mansour's helicopter using a missile from another helicopter. But they made it seems like a natural death." Ironically, Bostani himself was reportedly killed in a car accident in Riyadh. 

Seen initially as harbinger of freedom and democracy

When MBS became the Saudi Crown Prince, he was seen as a bringer of freedom and democracy; however, it didn’t take long for him to eliminate his rivals and critics, inside the royal court, inside the country, in the region or beyond.

The Mecca public court's president, Sheikh Suliman Abdul Rahman al Thunayan, was another victim of the Tiger Squad. A critic of Bin Salman's 2030 Vision, an ambitious economic plan, al Thuniyan was reportedly killed via a deadly virus, injected during a normal medical checkup in early October 2018.

I think what specialists are the refined capabilities, it is one thing to have the kind of, let's say blunt force terror that really started with [the] very beginning of the Saudi regime in the 1920s. When he first created this, this is currently the third Saudi state, but that they in a way... maybe this shouldn't be put this way, but it kind of reminds me of the kind of hit squads the Israelis have used in the past, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was some cooperation, communication, maybe even patterning this hit squad on what the Israelis have turned into an art form for many decades, decades.

James Jatras, Fmr. US Senate Foreign Policy Analyst

Unsuccessful operations in Canada

The Tiger Squad has had two unsuccessful operations in Canada. In one of these operations in 2018, the Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, a friend of Khashoggi, who lives in exile in Canada, was approached before the killing of his friend "by Saudi officials who urged him to visit their embassy with them to collect a new passport."

The Tiger Squad has had two unsuccessful operations in Canada. In one of these operations in 2018, the Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, a friend of Khashoggi, who lives in exile in Canada was approached before the killing of his friend "by Saudi officials who urged him to visit their embassy with them to collect a new passport."

James Jatras, Fmr. US Senate Foreign Policy Analyst

Abdulaziz refused to go to the consulate and the operation failed but the Saudi authorities arrested two of his brothers and several of his friends back at home.

Unsuccessful, again..

Another unsuccessful operation by the Tiger Squad intended to do away with Saad Aljabri, a former senior Saudi intelligence figure residing in Toronto.  According to a 106-page lawsuit filed August 6 2020 in the District Court in Washington, the hit squad failed in its bid to get past Canadian border guards at Pearson International Airport to eliminate Aljabri.

...MBS takes children hostage

As the mission was thwarted, on Bin Salman's orders, Aljabri's children who had long been prevented from leaving the kingdom were arrested in March 2020. They have been held hostage since then and their location and condition are unknown.

I think the existence of the squad shows that he is a ruthless and dangerous person and that he is willing, because I think we've seen this in other areas as well, for example his dog in pursuit of conquering Yemen despite the fact that that hasn't happened, that he is willing to use whatever means at his disposal to accomplish his ends, and that that like I say what seems to be new about this, it's not just the blood thirstiness of this or the ruthlessness that has characterised the Saudis for decades, but the, the ability to refine this now, with a way that can be targeted in a more precise way. … obviously… Mohammad Bin Salman … has to have a, not only a degree of intelligence but a huge degree of ambition, that he is willing to use whatever means at his disposal to accomplish his regional goals and his goals within Saudi Arabia, we saw this, by the way, also with his with his mass imprisoning people including members of the royal family, some of them tortured in order to make them cough up their assets. This is not the kind of thing, I don't, I don't think we've seen this even in Saudi Arabia before.

James Jatras, Fmr. US Senate Foreign Policy Analyst

The lawsuit claims that, as its first order of business, the squad kidnapped the prince in Europe via private jet and brought him back to Saudi Arabia, where he was detained and tortured.  

Executions based on confessions extracted through torture

Riyadh has refused to return the bodies of at least 33 of the 37 prisoners, all Shia Muslims, executed en masse in 2019, following trials that Amnesty International said relied on confessions extracted through torture.

Tiger Squad sent journalist's fingers as gift to MBS

It is said that when Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the consulate, members of the Tiger Squad sent the journalist's fingers to Riyadh as the trophy of their successful mission and a present to the Saudi Crown Prince who had reportedly threaten to cut off the fingers of every writer who dared to criticize him.

KSA bid for 2020 seat on UNHRC declined

Since the formation of the UNHRC in 2006, Saudi Arabia, despite having the worst human right record in the world, has been elected as a council member for four terms, between 2006 and 2012, and again from 2014 to 2019.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir