Experience: I made bombs for al-Qaida

In 1998, two US embassies were bombed, killing 200 Africans. I no longer wanted to be part of it

I grew up in Saudi Arabia, the youngest of six brothers. By the time I was 13, I had lost both my parents: my father in a traffic accident and my mother to a brain aneurysm.

Not long after they died, in 1992, the Bosnian war began. The evening news detailed atrocities perpetrated against defenceless Muslims, and the papers praised the bravery of the Saudi men who went to fight alongside them. My eldest brother had lectured us on the importance of fighting in defence of Islam, and when I learned that a childhood friend had decided to join the Bosnian mujahideen, I felt someone was paving the way for me.

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