Clashes in the kingdom
Saudi Arabia's crackdown on Islamists continues with the government's issuing a stark warning to the sons of Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, reports John R Bradley from Jeddah
Four men suspected of having links to Al-Qa'eda and of involvement in the devastating 12 May attacks against Western targets in the capital Riyadh chose to take their own lives last week rather than give themselves up to security forces who had surrounded their hide-out in the northern region of Al-Jouf, according to the Interior Ministry. They included Saudi Arabia's most-wanted Al-Qa'eda suspect, Turki Nasir Mishal Al-Dandani, whose death came just a week after the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, Ali Abdul-Rahman Al-Faqaasi Al-Ghamdi, handed himself over to authorities here in Jeddah.
Security officers raided the residence of an imam, a prayer leader, in the village of Suhair in Al-Jouf, where five wanted terrorists were hiding. The imam handed himself over -- as did one of the suspected terrorists, Hassan Hadi Al-Dossari. However, the remaining four fled to the imam's nearby mosque, opening fire with machine-guns and lobbing grenades at security forces.
Shortly afterward, during a gun battle, the group detonated explosives. A subsequent forensic report concluded that they blew themselves up, according to a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
"They were Saudi national Turki Nasir Mishal Al-Dandani, Kuwaiti national Rajih bin Hassan Abdul-Manae Al-Ajami, Abdul-Rahman Mansour Jubarah of Iraqi origin and holder of both Kuwaiti and Canadian nationalities, and Saudi national Amash Dakheel ibn Saad Al-Subaie," SPA said.
The Saudi authorities meanwhile uncovered more terror plots against foreigners during their interrogation of suspected militants arrested a week earlier in Islam's holiest city Mecca, according to anonymous sources quoted by the news wires. Details were sketchy, but Prince Naif conceded, "it is too early to say that the threat of terror has been removed because we are still looking for some of the suspects."
A list of 19 suspects was issued shortly before the Riyadh attacks, in which 26 bystanders and nine suicide bombers were killed. The government said at the time that the group had been in touch with Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda terror network. One of them, also killed in Al-Jouf, was reportedly carrying a letter signed by Bin Laden.
In an unprecedented move Interior Minister Prince Naif also warned last week that the kingdom would revoke the citizenship of any of Bin Laden's sons if they were found to be involved in terror acts. "The sons of Osama Bin Laden who are engaged in terrorist acts will be stripped of their Saudi citizenship like their father was," he told the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily.
There have been media reports that some of Saudi-born Bin Laden's sons, who accompanied him in Afghanistan, are still involved in Al-Qa'eda activities.
However, Prince Naif clarified that some of the sons lived outside Saudi Arabia and that only those engaged in terrorist activities would be stripped of their citizenship. Saudi Arabia revoked Bin Laden's citizenship in 1994 after he criticised the ruling House of Saud.
Nine of the 19 Saudi suspects have been killed or arrested since 12 May, but 10 remain at large. Since the bombings, more than 130 arrests have been made of those either involved in the bombings or said to be Al-Qa'eda sympathisers, according to Prince Naif, and more than 1,000 Saudis have been questioned.
