In an interview with the Saudi daily Okaz, Al Masiri did not identify
the expert. But he said the Pakistani was killed in late 2009 during the
premature detonation of a bomb under assembly.
Officials said the Pakistani bomb that nearly killed the Saudi deputy
minister had been inserted in the rectum of the suicide attacker, identified
as Abdullah Hassan Tali Al Asiri. They acknowledged that the bomb would not
have been found in a search of the Al Qaida operative, allowed to enter
Mohammed's home.
The Pakistani expert was said to have arrived in Yemen in 2009 to help
AQAP in the war against Riyad and Sanaa. Officials said the Al Qaida
operative was killed in the northern city of Saada in December 2009.
In a subsequent Yemeni air strike, three Saudis implicated in the
attempted assassination of Mohammed were also killed. They were identified
as Mohammed Al Rashed, Fahd Al Jittaili and Sultan Al Qahtani, said to have
been hiding in an Al Qaida safe house later searched by Yemeni forces.
"Our forces had found explosives and explosive belts similar to the
substances found in the explosive capsule used by Al Asiri in his attempt to
kill Prince Mohammed," Al Masiri said.
Al Masiri said Pakistanis have also been providing other expertise for
AQAP operations. He said an unidentified Pakistani expert was helping the Al
Qaida network in Yemen prepare chemical weapons, particularly poison gas.
"They are training Al Qaida operatives to use poisonous substances," Al
Masiri said.