Revealed: The Tiger Squad assassins

SAUDI Arabia’s crown prince has a death squad tasked with covertly killing dissidents inside the kingdom and on foreign soil, it is claimed.

The Firqat el-Nemr, or Tiger Squad, is made up of 50 of the country’s bestskilled intelligence and military operatives who are loyal to their leader.

It is supervised by Mohammed bin Salman, the de-facto ruler of the Gulf state, the Middle East Eye reported.

He is alleged to have chosen five of his most trusted personal security team to serve in the squad. They are alleged to be among the 15 men sent to kill Mr Khashoggi, including Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, Mohammed al-Zahrani and Dhaar al-Harbi.

A source said: ‘ They [the Saudi leadership] have the belief that arresting critics will mount pressure on them so that’s why they started assassinating them quietly.’

It was named the Tiger Squad after Major General Ahmed al-Assiri, deputy chief of Saudi intelligence, who was sacked by Riyadh last week over Mr Khashoggi’s death. The source added: ‘Assiri is well known among his colleagues as “the Tiger of the South”. Since the coalition’s war [on Yemen], the Saudi media also started calling Assiri “the Beast” and he liked this nickname.’

Assiri and Saoud al-Qahtani, one of the crown prince’s closest aides, who was also dismissed last week, are believed to be part of the command structure. Mutreb is described as ‘the spinal cord of the Tiger Squad’. The source said: ‘He was chosen by MBS himself, who depends on him and is close to him.’