An Arab newspaper reveals that the mess tent suicide bomber was a Saudi medical student. His name?

Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat identified him as 20-year-old Ahmed Said Ahmed al-Ghamdi, citing friends of the man’s father.

The friends said members of an Iraqi resistance group contacted al-Ghamdi’s father to tell him his son was the suicide bomber who carried out the December 21 attack, the deadliest on an American installation in Iraq.

US officials have said their investigation indicates the bomber was dressed in an Iraqi military uniform — but was not an Iraqi soldier — when he slipped into a mess tent packed with soldiers eating lunch in northern Iraq.

The father refused to discuss the suicide bombing, but told the newspaper his son had gone to Iraq to fight the Americans and had died there.

The article notes that three of the 9/11 hijackers also carried the surname “Al Ghamdi.”

Rantburg says: “What a surprise!” Winds of Change connects more blood-stained Saudi dots here. Alphabet City investigates further.

And here’s more.

Update: The Saudi Institute says the mess tent bomber also happens to be the eldest son of Saudi diplomat Saeed Al-Ghamdi, the former head of Saudi diplomatic mission to Sudan prior to his return to Riyadh. (Hat tip: Robert Stevens)