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Saudi fugitives âare al-Qaedaâ
The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, has said that 19 Islamic militants being sought by the authorities are suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. I'm shocked, shocked that they admitted this. The group - all but two of them Saudis - had been planning to carry out attacks in the kingdom. Following a shoot-out with some of the men on Tuesday, the security services found a big arms cache in the house they had been using in the capital, Riyadh. Prince Nayef said the men - 17 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Yemeni - were known members of an al-Qaeda cell. He told a Saudi newspaper they were all young men who had received military training in Afghanistan. The Saudi media have shown pictures of the men and are making much of the huge cache of weapons and explosives found in their hide-out. In the past, officials referred to such people merely as "misguided youth" - and a spate of attacks on Westerners in the kingdom was officially blamed on expatriates involved in the illegal production of alcohol. The fabled "alk runners". Now there is more openness. The authorities say they have arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects since the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States, and acknowledge that Bin Laden has sympathisers in the country. They have not said what targets the 19 men were planning to attack. But last week, the US State Department said it had intelligence reports warning of attacks against Americans in the Saudi kingdom. Posted by: Steve 2003-05-08 |
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