The Tiger Squad (, '), also known as UNIT 1103, and officially called the Rapid Intervention Force (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: قوة التدخل السريع, ''Quat al-Tadakhul al-Sarie''), is a military unit under the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,

Mohammed bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (; born 31 August 1985), also known as MBS or MbS, is the ''de facto'' ruler of the Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, formally serving as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Sa ...

. According to an unnamed source interviewed by the London-based online news outlet ''

Middle East Eye ''Middle East Eye'' (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

'' following the

assassination of Jamal Khashoggi On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body w ...

in October 2018 and a

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source inside Saudi Arabia who has a relative in the squad, it is a Saudi team that consists of approximately one-hundred fifty Saudi officers. According to the ''Middle East Eye'' source, the Tiger Squad is a

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...

of members from the military and intelligence agencies that has the mandate to carry out covert operations and executions, killing Saudi dissidents inside Saudi Arabia and abroad in a way that "goes unnoticed by the media, the international community". Sa'ad Al-Faqih, a Saudi opposition leader who claims he knows about this squad, confirmed that the role of the squad was to target and kill Saudi opponents.

History and composition

According to a report from the New York Times, the personnel that would make up the Rapid Intervention Force originally received paramilitary training from

Tier 1 Group Tier 1 Group formally known as Aggressive Training Solutions is an American private military company, founded by retired Marine Steve Reichert in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Tier 1 Group provides marksmanship training, military tactical traini ...

sometime before 2017. The move was initially authorized by then-

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through the

US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

. Louis Bremer from Tier 1 Group's parent company,

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, insisted the training was only for protective security of MbS, and not for carrying out targeted assassinations. There was no evidence that the US Department of State was aware of what the operatives-in-training would be utilized for. According to the ''Middle East Eye''s source, the Tiger Squad was formed in 2017 and , and consists of 50 secret service and military personnel. The group members are recruited from different branches of the Saudi forces, directing several areas of expertise. The source was independently verified by ''Middle East Eye'', though it could not confirm his information. On the other hand, '' BBC Newsnight'' reported a team of fifty Saudi officers to target Saudi critics was created in summer of 2018, and, according to

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intelligence became aware in September 2018 of a "tiger team" to be created by Asiri for

covert operation A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence A ...

s against unknown targets. The Middle East Eye source said the Tiger Squad assassinates dissidents using varying methods such as planned car accidents, house fires, or injecting toxic substances into adversaries during regular health checkups. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had selected five members of his personal security team to serve in the Tiger squad.

Role and organization

The Rapid Intervention Force serves the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,

, as both a protective security unit and counter-dissident force. While it is officially part of the Saudi Royal Guard Regiment, it is solely loyal to the Crown Prince. It has been operating as early as 2017, already engaging in forced repatriations of Saudi dissidents, arbitrary detention and torture of women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia. The unit is overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, the former General Supervisor of the Center for Studies and Media Affairs, with its

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

being Maj. Gen. Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a senior officer of the

General Intelligence Presidency The General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) ( ) is the primary intelligence agency of Saudi Arabia. Structure The highest authority for GIP is the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman. In accordance with Article 60 of the Basic Law, he has the aut ...

Alleged operations

Claims of particular operations include: *2 October 2018 –

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi (13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, Saudi dissidents, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab New ...

* 2018 – Sheikh Suleiman bin Abdul Rahman al-Thuniyan * 2018 – Omar Abdulaziz (preliminary phase) * 2018 – Saad bin Khalid Al Jabry (attempted)

Jamal Khashoggi

According to the Middle East Eye source, the five members of the Tiger Squad selected by Mohammad bin Salman allegedly spearheaded the 15-member death squad responsible for murdering and dismembering Washington Post columnist

inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In a later report, Middle East Eye stated seven members of the 15-member death squad were Mohammed bin Salman's personal bodyguards. According to the BBC source, the whole 15-member death squad killing

were part of the Tiger Squad (Tiger Team). ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that according to US officials who had access to classified intelligence reports, the members of the team involved in killing Khashoggi were also involved in more than a dozen operations since 2017. The US officials referred to this team as "Saudi Rapid Intervention Group". The ''

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'' had reported citing anonymous intelligence officials that some members of the team had received special operations training by a company operating in

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under the licence of the

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as part of US-Saudi cooperation.

Al-Thuniyan

The Tiger Squad also reportedly killed Suleiman Abdul Rahman al-Thuniyan, a Saudi court judge who was murdered by injection of a deadly virus into his body when he had visited a hospital for a regular health checkup. "One of the techniques the tiger squad uses to silence dissidents or opponents of the government is to 'kill them with HIV, or other sorts of deadly viruses'". However, some sources have stated that al-Thuniyan died after he suffered from a chronic disease.

Omar Abdulaziz

''Middle East Eyes source said, "I know of another attempt, which was to lure Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz in Canada to the consulate and kill him, but Abdulaziz refused to go and the mission failed. Khashoggi was the first uccessfuloperation." Abdulaziz said he was approached in 2018 (before Jamal Khashoggi was murdered) "by Saudi officials who urged him to visit their embassy with them to collect a new passport". Abdulaziz said that after he refused, Saudi authorities arrested two of his brothers and several of his friends in Saudi Arabia. He secretly recorded his conversations with those officials, which were several hours long, and provided them to ''The Washington Post''. Neither he nor the newspaper allege these officials wanted to kill him during the meetings.

Saad bin Khalid al-Jabry

In 2020, Saad bin Khalid al-Jabry, a former senior official in the Saudi government, exiled in Canada, filed a lawsuit in the United States against Mohammad bin Salman, alleging that bin Salman had sent the Tiger Squad to Canada in 2018, "carrying two bags of forensic tools", aiming to assassinate al-Jabry. The Tiger Squad agents were blocked on entry to Canada by border officials.

Sanctions

In February 2021, the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

placed sanctions on Asiri and the entire squad unit for their alleged involvement in the killing of Khashoggi.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , title= Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denies sending hit squad to Canada , date= 2020-12-08 , newspaper=

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55232926 , access-date=2020-12-09 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20201208234941/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55232926 , archive-date= 2020-12-08 , url-status=live

External links

Jamal Khashoggi: What more can we learn from his death?
Saudi dissident Sa'ad Al-Faqih, the head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), interviewed by BBC Newsnight about the Tiger Squad, published on Nov 6, 2018 Extrajudicial killings 2017 establishments in Saudi Arabia Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia Law enforcement in Saudi Arabia Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia Paramilitary organisations based in Saudi Arabia Protective security units Saudi Arabian assassins Arab Winter