Abu Khalid al-Suri

Abu Khalid al-Suri (Arabic: أبو خالد السوري ‎; Abu Khalid 'the Syrian'), or Mohamed al-Bahaiya or Abu Umayr al-Shami, was a Syrian jihadist militant often affiliated with Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and the Syrian Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham. Al-Suri was assassinated in an ISIS suicide operation in 2014.

On February 21, 2014 five men entered al-Suri's headquarter compound in Aleppo and opened fire, then one of the gunman detonated his explosive pack. The attack killed al-Suri and six of his men.

Al-Suri was financially aided partly by Abd Al-Rahman al-Nuaimi, a Qatari national. Nuaimi is a purported human rights activist and co-founder of Alkarama. On December 18, 2013, Nuaimi was placed on the United States Treasury's Specially Designated Global Terror List (SDTG). Nuaimi is accused of transferring $600,000 dollars to al-Suri and the intent to transfer approximately $50,000 more.

In early 2013 infighting began between al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front and ISIL (then known only as ISI). It began with a recorded announcement on April 8 by ISI's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announcing an unauthorized merger between the two groups. Disagreements and conflicts between the two escalated by the end of 2013. Hostilities continued to worsen, with al-Nusra's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, claiming in a 2014 interview that he saw no end to the conflict.

In May 2013, the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent a secret letter to al-Baghdadi in the hopes of quelling tensions between their two groups. The letter, dated 23 May 2013, asserts al-Qaeda's dominance and names al-Suri as al-Zawahiri's representative and delegate in Syria.

In 2011, al-Suri co-founded Ahrar al-Sham, a Sunni Syrian Islamist group, opposing Bashar al-Assad's government forces as part of the Islamic Front. Despite helping to found al-Sham and serving in its most senior ranks, al-Suri's involvement in the organization and his ties to al-Qaeda were kept secret, and he adopted a new nom de guerre: Abu Omeir al-Shami. Al Suri continued to use both names separately in statements, but it was not until after his death that the two were linked as the same person.

In 2004, al-Suri and Abu-Musab were linked to the 2004 Madrid bombing through a series of money transfers and personal contacts. A Spanish court document went on to name al-Suri as Bin Laden's "courier" in Europe. Another report refers to him as "a 'mid-level' activist…and a 'member of Usama bin Ladin's structures in Europe".

During the 1990s al-Suri coordinated closely with Abu-Musab al-Suri, a Spanish-Syrian jihadist. Together they worked to establish jihadi volunteer centers, training camps and various media groups in Afghanistan. While both men worked closely with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, they denied being members of al-Qaeda in a statement made in 1999. Around the time of the statement, al-Suri had been operating mostly out of Turkey and fled to Afghanistan.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1963 as Mohamed al-Bahaiya, al-Suri's jihadist career has its roots in the failed Islamist uprising in Syria between 1979 and 1982, following which he fled Syria.