Al-Mihdhar was born on May 16 , 1975 , in Mecca , Saudi Arabia to a prominent family , related to the Quraysh tribe of Mecca . Little is known about his life before the age of 20 , when he and childhood friend Nawaf al-Hazmi went to Bosnia and Herzegovina to fight with the mujahideen in the Bosnian War . After the war , Mihdhar and Hazmi went to Afghanistan where they fought alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance , and al-Qaeda would later dub Hazmi his " second in command " . In 1997 , Mihdhar told his family that he was leaving to fight in Chechnya , though it is not certain that he actually went to Chechnya . The same year , both men attracted the attention of Saudi Intelligence , who believed they were involved in arms smuggling , and the following year they were eyed as possible collaborators in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa after it emerged that Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali had given the FBI the phone number of Mihdhar 's father-in-law ; 967-1-200578 , which turned out to be a key communications hub for al-Qaeda militants , and eventually tipped off the Americans about the upcoming Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit
1998 United States embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
Khalid al-Mihdhar