Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (1978 – May 2, 2011), real name: Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed (also known as Shaykh Abu Ahmed, Arshad Khan and Mohammed Arshad), was a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani terrorist and courier for Osama bin Laden.

He was not a Kuwaiti, but rather was an ethnic Pashtun and a Pakistani citizen. He adopted the last name Al-Kuwaiti because his Pakistani parents lived in Kuwait. According to secret documents, he was one of the few men bin Laden completely trusted and was said to be his "favorite courier and right-hand man". He sheltered and lived with bin Laden for a number of years and was killed along with him by the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group on 2 May 2011.

Al-Kuwaiti, along with Bin Laden, was killed during the raid on the compound by a United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group team on 2 May 2011. According to the book No Easy Day, Al-Kuwaiti was shot and killed by Chief Petty Officer Matt Bissonnette and Petty Officer 1st Class Will Chesney (the latter was the handler of Cairo, a Belgian Shepherd and U.S. military working dog who also participated in the raid) during a short gunfight in the compound's guest house. Bissonnette was lightly injured with bullet fragments in the left shoulder while Al-Kuwaiti's wife Mariam was shot and wounded in the right shoulder in the crossfire.

"In August 2010 they tracked al-Kuwaiti as he drove from Peshawar to a residence in Abbottabad – and as analysts inventoried the compound's striking security features they became convinced that it housed a high-level al-Qaeda figure."

Using satellite photos and intelligence reports, the CIA sought to identify the inhabitants of the fortified compound in Abbottabad. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was "custom built to hide someone of significance" and that it was very likely that Osama bin Laden was residing there. Al-Kuwaiti was said to be one of the two tall fair-skinned bearded men who claimed to be ethnic Pashtuns and were known in the community to be living at the house and occasionally attended local funerals.

Guantanamo Bay documents dated 16 January 2008 revealed that Mohamedou Ould Salahi had claimed that Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti was wounded while fleeing Tora Bora after the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 and had later died from his arm injuries. The document claimed he was a mid-level al-Qaeda operative who facilitated the movement and safe haven of senior al-Qaeda members and families. As a speaker of Arabic and Pashto he could communicate and move easily among both the Arab members of al-Qaeda and the Pashtun tribesmen of Pakistan.

Contradicting the claims by Salahi that al-Kuwaiti had died in December 2001, in 2007 U.S. officials discovered the courier's real name and, in 2009, that he lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan. These findings were based on information collected from Guantánamo Bay detainees, notably Hassan Gul in 2004. From Gul, the United States intelligence learned that al-Kuwaiti was also close to Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Gul further revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, a fact which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with Bin Laden.