A relative of Walid Jarbou' Al-Harbi, the Saudi who has been blamed for leading Ibrahim Saleh Mujahid Al-Khalifa into terrorism, has said that the two were friends from primary school and that Al-Harbi had served prison time for offenses related to security clashes in 2005. Ibrahim Al-Khalifa's death was first announced last Sunday by Al-Qaeda on the Internet and Yemeni government sources confirmed the news the same day, saying that the 29-year-old Saudi was killed in security clashes in Yemen's Hadhramawt region last November. Walid Al-Harbi reportedly informed the family one month ago of Al-Khalifa's death in a telephone call from Yemen, and Al-Harbi has since been blamed for influencing him. According to a relative of Al-Harbi who wished to remain anonymous, Walid was arrested five years ago for suspected connections to the April 2005 gun battles with security forces in the Al-Ras District of Al-Jawazat, after which he spent “over a year in prison”. “He left for Yemen a year ago, but we don't know if he entered using his passport or if he got in illegally,” the relative said. “He has been in touch with his family several times and they've tried to persuade him to come back.” Al-Harbi failed to finish his studies at Qassim University and has never married, the relative said. “I'm amazed at the furor surrounding him.” Muhammad Al-Khalifa has said, meanwhile, that his brother Ibrahim and Al-Harbi were close from a young age. “They were at Al-Shanana Primary School together, and Walid called the family a month ago to say Ibrahim had died.” Saudi Gazette reported earlier this week that Ibrahim Al-Khalifa was wanted by the Saudi Ministry of Interior but was not on the ministry's 2009 list of terrorist suspects. “Information linking him with Al-Qaeda only became available after the list was published”, Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said. Al-Khalifa graduated from the Teacher's College in Al-Ras in Qassim and, according to his brother Muhammad, later worked for two years as a science teacher at a primary school in the small town of Al-Shanana, 10 km from Al-Duwadami, 400 km to the west of Riyadh. His family said he disappeared from his home in Al-Ras in Qassim shortly after Eid Al-Fitr last year, prompting them to inform the security authorities. Al-Khalifa was later found to have entered Yemeni territory using his Saudi passport. Once in Yemen, he is believed to have joined up with Al-Qaeda and trained in guerrilla warfare tactics and how to make explosives, becoming the leader of an Al-Qaeda cell operating in the southeast region of Hadhramawt. According to government sources in Al-Ras, a medical student relative of Al-Khalifa was killed attempting to cross into Iraq two years ago.
