Al-Nashiri is described as “one of al-Qaeda’s most skilled and capable operational coordinators” and was also accused of planning the suicide attack that badly damaged the MV Limburg, a French oil tanker, in 2002. The attacks were allegedly planned under bin Laden’s direct orders. According to interrogators, al-Nashiri was “linked to as many as a dozen plots to attack US and Western interests” and his cell “was responsible for conducting suicide and sabotage operations outside Afghanistan”.