|
Security Forces Arrest Five Chadians for Killing Frenchman
 Saudi security authorities said they arrested five Chadians belonging to the "deviant group", the term used to describe Al-Qaeda militants, yesterday. The Chadians confessed to murdering a French national and also committing several armed robberies in Jeddah last year. An Interior Ministry statement said the five formed a "criminal gang based on misleading fatwas (religious rulings) that justified to them the committing of murder and armed robbery" to finance their operations.Frenchman Laurent Barbot, an engineer who worked for a defense electronics company, was shot in his car in September 2004 as he left a supermarket in Jeddah. The statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said three of the Chadians rented a car using fake identification and tailed the Frenchman, and when he stopped at a neighborhood one of them opened fire with a machine gun, killing him. Foreigners, and particularly Westerners working in the Kingdom, have been the targets of attacks by militants over the past two years in different parts of the country. Several people, including civilians as well as members of the security forces, have been killed in the attacks. The arrests of the five indicate that security forces have got the militants on the run with their sustained offensive. Normalcy has returned to the streets of the Kingdom with more and more Westerners seen shopping and enjoying leisure activities. The statement said the five also confessed to carrying a series of armed robberies last year at several sites including the offices of British Airways as well as a number of supermarkets. "Finding no employees in the airline's main office which was closed at the time, they (the five Chadians) went to the back office and surrounded seven employees and threatened them with automatic weapons. They then forced them to open the safe and then took what was inside. One employee managed to trigger the alarm prompting the attackers to leave in a hurry," said the statement. The five also attacked two supermarkets where they held the employees at gunpoint before robbing the safes and taking a number of pre-paid telephone cards. One of the arrested men tried to kill an expatriate by firing at him, while the foreigner was near a bank in Jeddah. The expatriate was not hurt in the incident. Security forces also seized the weapons and other material used in the attacks. "Despite the precautions taken by these individuals who seek to spread corruption on earth and their attempts to remain in hiding, the security forces succeeded in arresting the five men and seizing the weapons and tools used in the crimes. The five confessed to committing the crimes and they would be refered them to the Shariah court", the statement said. Posted by: Fred 2005-06-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=121755 |