Did The Saudi Crown Prince’s Tiger Squad Assassinate Jamal Khashoggi?

The Middle East Eye is reporting that a source within Saudi Arabia has exposed a Saudi death squad named the Tiger Squad that was involved in the Jamal Khashoggi assassination and also conducted numerous high profile assassination within the Kingdom itself. The source told MEE that the ruling family in Saudi Arabia was fed up with the political ramifications that took place when they would arrest political dissidents.

The Kingdom recruited and assembled this assassination team that was made up of mostly Mohammed bin Salman personal security staff and other members of military branches in Saudi Arabia. The Tiger Squad carried out assassinations that made it look like their targets died in accidents like car crashes or of natural causes.

The Firqat el-Nemr, also known as the Tiger Squad gets its title as from the deputy chief of Saudi intelligence Major General Ahmed al-Assiri who was fired this week and was known as the ‘tiger in the south’ based on his aggressive actions in Yemen. The source also told MEE that all 15 men sent to Istanbul to kill Jamal Khashoggi were members of Mohammed bin Salman’s Tiger Squad.

Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination was the first planned assassination to be carried out by the Tiger Squad outside of Saudi Arabia. There have been numerous deaths in Saudi Arabia all under mysterious circumstances. Unsurprisingly all of the victims of these mysterious deaths are known to be opponents of the Crown Prince.

Two days after Jamal Khashoggi, was killed in Turkey a Lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Airforce by the name of Meshal Saad al-Bostani was killed in a car accident in Riyadh. According to the source in the article published by the MEE, Meshal Saad al-Bostani was the pilot who brought down Prince Mansour bin Moqren’s helicopter in November of last year, up until this report from the Middle East Eye, Prince Mansour bin Moqren’s death was believed to be an ‘accident.’

On October 1st one day before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Mecca public court president Suliman Abdul Rahman al Thuniyan died at a hospital in Riyadh. But the Saudi source told MEE that Suliman Abdul Rahman al Thuniyan did not die of natural causes as was presumed and the Mecca public court president’s death was also a planned assassination carried out by the Tiger Squad. Suliman Abdul Rahman al Thuniyan was allegedly assassinated, after writing a letter in opposition to Mohammed bin Salman’s 2030 economic vision.

In Jamal Khashoggi’s last published article he spoke of the need for voices in the Arab world, he spoke of an ironclad curtain oppressing free thought and expression in the Arab world. Sadly, Jamal became a victim of exactly what he was trying to warn us of, as an outspoken critic of Mohammed bin Salman and someone who was residing outside of the Kingdom’s reach Jamal Khashoggi was perceived to be a threat to Mohammed bin Salman’s reformer image.

Multiple media outlets recently reported that Mohammed bin Salman called Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and asked him to return to Saudi Arabia, Jamal Khashoggi reportedly refused and was immediately murdered. His body was then allegedly dismembered on the Saudi Consulate Generals desk. Jamal Khashoggi’s remains were later found in a garden well at the personal residence of the Saudi Consulate General.

It is our moral imperative not only as a society but especially as Journalist to hold oppressive monarchies accountable for their actions, Journalist must continue to speak out against suffocating regimes, because it will open the door for voices in the Arab world to speak out more against power, we have to be the rebel-tones of their silenced voices.

Written by Joziah Thayer – Twitter @Dapeaple – You can find more of my work here