Khattab was born in Saudi Arabia and is either Saudi or Jordanian. His father was an Arab and his mother was Turkish.
His family, who was either a Bedouin family or a wealthy middle class family, wanted to send him to the United States for education, but he ran away from home before he could. He first heard about the Chechen conflict on CNN.
He was said to have partipated in the fight against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He may have had a partnership with Pakistani intelligence.
Khattab was married to a woman who is a native of Karamakhi, Dagestan. The couple had two children.
The flamboyant Khattab participated in operations against the Russian government from March 1995 until March 2002, when he was poisoned.
He has been succeeded by a man named Amir Abu al-Walid.