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Saudi killing of al Qaeda cell leader shows "resolute pursuit"
The killing in Saudi Arabia of a top al Qaeda cell leader, Saleh al-Oufi, was another example of the Saudis' "resolute pursuit" of terrorists, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Thursday.
 | We're making polite conversation here. I'm happy to see him dead, of course, and I hope it was very painful, but Lewis Atiyyat Allah is probably the brains of the outfit, with Sheikh Hawali directly over him and Binny off to one side, looking on approvingly. Al-Oafi will be replaced by somebody else who's fond of keeping heads in his fridge and the sporadic carnage will continue. |
Al-Oufi "certainly is somebody who has been one of the most wanted terrorist fugitives in Saudi Arabia for several years," McCormack said. U.S. officials "are working closely with the Saudi government on terrorism and law enforcement matters, and that cooperation will continue," he said. In recent months and over the past couple of years, the Saudis have achieved "real successes" in their operations by killing and apprehending a number of senior Qaeda figures in the Kingdom, and dismantling a number of terror cells, and have lost more than 40 of their own law enforcement officers in the process, McCormack said. All those involved in the war against terrorism "need to be vigilant and continue pursuing these networks and these cells and break them up," he said.
Often when a leader of a terror cell is killed or captured, somebody else steps into place to take over those responsibilities, McCormack said, "but what happens in that is you are degrading over time the overall capability of that particular cell or organization, because those people do not have the experience or maybe leadership capabilities that the person that they replaced had." In additional to remaining vigilant and degrading terrorist cells, officials also need to address the root causes of terrorism, he added. "So we are working on a number of different tracks to try to address the issue of terrorism, and what you saw today in Saudi Arabia is one of those tracks," McCormack said.
Posted by: Fred 2005-08-19 |
