JEDDAH: Saudi security forces unraveling an alleged plot to attack the holiest city in the Islamic world say many of the suspects were mere teenagers, including one as young as 15 years old, whose boyish features and hairless cheeks may have helped mask a violent assignment.
| That also gets them light sentences. "They're just lads. They didn't really know what they were doing." |
The suspected Makkah plot uncovered earlier this month, coupled with May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh that killed 35 people, kick-started Saudi efforts to crack down on militant groups here. The recent attention also showed that terror groups appear to have been fishing for recruits among the vast pool of young men in this kingdom, where more than half the population of about 20 million is under 18.
| Guess we know what Soddies do at night. And taking the pill is un-Islamic... |
"They are being recruited at this young and impressionable age and are being taken advantage of," an Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"Some of them were students in high school." Of 12 suspected al-Qaeda militants arrested last week in the Makkah plot, six were minors, the official said. The raid on a bomb-filled, booby-trapped apartment in Makkah left five suspects and two police officers dead. "The average age of these young men, whether those involved in the Riyadh attacks, or those detained in Guantanamo Bay, or the ones involved in Makkah last week, is around 20," the official said on condition of anonymity.
| Makes sense when you're utterly ruthless. Get your cannon fodder young, and any surivors can be promoted. Except for relatives, of course. They start at the top, 'cause they're too important to The Movement™. |
The roughly 660 detainees in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay hail from 42 countries, with more than 120 from Saudi Arabia. Among these is the youngest detainee, a Saudi who is 17 years old. Al-Qaeda leaders have been open about their policy of recruiting young Saudis, said an expert on militants. "Osama bin Laden has said publicly in interviews that he is targeting people in the 15 to 25 age range. They are the most valuable and the most malleable of the organization's foot soldiers," said Abdul-Rahman al-Motawa, who recently published a book on Saudis detained in Guantanamo Bay. Al-Motawa said many Saudi youth who end up as members of al-Qaeda cells are recruited through Web sites and private gatherings. "The Internet is very dangerous. Many of the young men were lured to Afghanistan with the promise of work with relief organizations. Once there, they were trained and sometimes sent back to Saudi Arabia to carry out attacks here," he said.
| Nobody buys the "relief organization" story anymore, Abdul. |
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