Ahlam al-Tamimi ‘no longer subject to Interpol warrant’

Ahlam al-Tamimi in Amman, Jordan, March 21, 2017.

Global police organization Interpol has reportedly dropped its arrest warrant for Ahlam Tamimi, the female terrorist behind one of the most notorious suicide bombings of the Second Intifada.

On Sunday, Arabic language media published a letter from the law enforcement agency, dated March 8, which stated that Tamimi is “no longer subject to Interpol notice.”

The letter did not provide an explanation for the decision.

Tamimi’s image was also removed from the “Most Wanted” section of the Interpol site.

Her husband, Nizar Tamimi, confirmed the development in a Facebook post, writing “praise be to Allah.”

In August 2001, Tamimi assisted in the planning and execution of the Sbarro pizza restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 15 people, including eight children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130.

The Jordanian-born journalist scouted out the location for the attack and drove the perpetrator of the attack, Izz al-din Al Masri, through a checkpoint to the site of the bombing.

It’s widely believed that because she was a woman dressed in Western-style clothing, she deflected attention away from the bomber and helped him get past Israeli security officials who may have otherwise stopped him.

Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences for her role in the murders, but was released during the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.

In a chilling interview which took place while she was incarcerated, Tamimi expressed no regret for her crime. When an Israeli journalist asked if she knew how many children were killed in the bombing, she smiled and said, “Three.”

The journalist informed Tamimi that eight children had been killed. In response, she laughed and smiled widely.

One of Tamimi’s victims, 15-year-old Malki Roth, held American citizenship. Roth’s parents have lobbied the U.S. government for years to leverage a law which permits terrorists who murder American citizens abroad to be prosecuted and incarcerated in the U.S.

After Tamimi was released from prison, the FBI offered a $5 million reward for her capture and the Interpol arrest warrant was issued. In June 2020, the U.S. government issued an extradition request for Tamimi, but the Jordanian government has refused to honor it.

“I do not regret what happened. Absolutely not,” she told Jordanian news site Ammon in 2012.

“I dedicated myself to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and Allah granted me success. You know how many casualties there were? This was made possible by Allah. Do you want me to denounce what I did? That’s out of the question. I would do it again today, and in the same manner.”