December 16, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 30, 1422

RIYADH, Dec 15: The identity of Osama bin Laden’s guest, referred to as the “Sheikh” in a videotape released by the Pentagon on Thursday, remains a mystery amid conflicting accounts of who he really is.

The paralyzed Sheikh who appeared in the video sitting next to Osama was identified by US sources to the Saudi-owned London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Saturday as Suleiman al-Ghamdi, a Saudi national based in Jeddah.

But the paper quoted Arab sources identifying him as Abu Suleiman al-Makki, who married the daughter of Osama’s right hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, while he was staying in Jeddah several years ago.

Other Arab sources told the newspaper the man is an Iraqi identified by his nom de guerre “Abu Khadija.” He is one of the “Afghan Arabs” who fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost his foot as a result.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat quoted “well-informed” sources identifying the Sheikh as Abu Suleiman al-Makki, a veteran Saudi “Afghan Arab” who fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia for 11 years.

The paper said the man is a resident of Makkah, from where he took his family name.

The sources said the man is not a member of Osama’s Al Qaeda organization or one of its collaborators. He is a leading cleric who taught the Holy Quran and religion to a large number of Arab mujahideen who are not members of Al Qaeda.

Makki was disabled by a piece of shrapnel that hit him in the back while fighting in Bosnia and left him semi-paralyzed in his lower limbs.

No one apparently knows Makki’s whereabouts, although the sources believe he is still in Afghanistan where he was smuggled during the US-led campaign on Osama and the Taliban.

—AFP