Wail al-Shehri

Wail Mohammed al-Shehri (وائل الشهري, Wāīl ash-Shehrī; also transliterated as Alshehri) (31 July 1973 – 11 September 2001) was a Saudi terrorist hijacker.

After graduating from Abha teachers college in 1999, Wail al-Shehri took a job as an elementary school physical education teacher at the Khamis Mushait Airbase.

Five months into the job, al-Shehri took leave due to mental illness and depression.

Rather than conventional therapy, al-Shehri sought consultation with Muslim clerics, and hoped that a visit to Medina would help.

His treatment involved verses from the Qur'an read to him by a sheikh.

He traveled to Medina together with Waleed.

After the 11 September attacks, others recalled seeing the al-Shehri brothers in Medina.

Wail and Waleed al-Shehri disappeared after going to Medina, calling their father just once; in the conversation, the brothers were vague about when they would return.

Both had expressed interest in joining the jihad in Chechnya, though may have been diverted to Afghanistan.

Before disappearing, the al-Shehri brothers went to Al-Seqley Mosque to swear an oath and commitment to jihad, as did Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi.

Wail al-Shehri presided over the ceremony, dubbing himself Abu Mossaeb al-Janubi after one of Muhammad's companions.

In early 2000, he traveled to Medina to seek treatment for mental problems.

He and his younger brother Waleed traveled to Afghanistan in March 2000 and joined an Al-Qaeda training camp.

The brothers were chosen, along with others from the same region of Saudi Arabia, to participate in the 11 September attacks.

Once selected, al-Shehri returned to Saudi Arabia in October 2000 to obtain a clean passport, then returned to Afghanistan.

He was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the 11 September attacks in 2001.

Wail al-Shehri was an elementary school teacher from Khamis Mushait in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia.

In March 2001, he recorded his last will and testament on video.

Al-Shehri arrived in the United States in early June 2001, staying in budget motels in the Boynton Beach area of south Florida.

On 5 September 2001, al-Shehri traveled to Boston and checked into a motel with his brother.

Six days later, al-Shehri arrived early in the morning at Boston's Logan International Airport and boarded American Airlines Flight 11.

Fifteen minutes after Takeoff, al-Shehri, along with his brother and three others, hijacked the airliner.

They deliberately crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m.

In the aftermath of the attacks, some news reports mistakenly reported that al-Shehri was the son of a Saudi diplomat and was still alive and well.

The al-Shehri family in Khamis Mushait spoke to the media, denying those early reports, saying that the al-Shehri brothers had disappeared and have not been heard from since.

Wail al-Shehri and his younger brother Waleed were from Khamis Mushait in the Asir province, which is an impoverished area in southwestern Saudi Arabia, along the Yemeni border.

Al-Shehri was born in Annams, and grew up in the Um Saraar neighborhood in Khamis Mushait.

He had ten brothers and one sister.

Several of al-Shehri's brothers joined the Saudi military, while his uncle may have been a major in the army and director of logistics.

Al-Shehri's father, Mohammed Ali Asgley Al Shehri, worked as a car dealer.

On weekends, the family often spent time together at the Red Sea.

The family strictly adhered to the Wahabi school of Islam, which forbids many elements of modernity.

As such, the al-Shehri family did not have satellite television or Internet, nor did his parents permit music or contact with girls.

Some of Wail al-Shehri's elder brothers had visited the United States and could speak English; however, he knew little English.

During high school and college, al-Shehri was deeply religious and attended Al-Seqley Mosque, which his family had built as the local mosque.

Al-Shehri also frequented government-supported religious camps in Saudi Arabia.

At this time, there were strong religious feelings in Saudi Arabia, especially in the Asir region.

Many young people in the region idolized Osama bin Laden, who had family ties to the area.

Al-Shehri's father was a friend of Bin Laden's father, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden.

Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi, who were both hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, came from the same area in Saudi Arabia as the Shehri family.