Saudis arrest alleged mastermind of Riyadh explosions
RIYADH, May 28: Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday the arrest of the alleged mastermind of recent suicide attacks in Riyadh and several other Al Qaeda terror suspects, as an opposition group reported two fugitive clerics killed in a special forces raid.
“Eleven people have been arrested since Tuesday in Medina,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz told a press conference in the northern city of Tabuk.
Okaz newspaper earlier quoted informed sources as saying the arrests, including suspected mastermind Ali Abdulrahman al-Ghamdi, were made in Medina on Tuesday when police stopped a jeep with five men inside.
Al-Watan newspaper reported, however, that at least eight suspects had been arrested in the raid on two districts in Medina on Tuesday.
Ghamdi is a member of the cell of 19 alleged terrorists whose names and pictures were released by the interior ministry only a few days before the May 12 Riyadh attacks that left 34 people dead, including nine bombers.
On May 6, security forces searching for individuals allegedly involved in a March bomb attack launched a manhunt after a shoot-out in Riyadh with the suspects, who eventually got away.
Searches of their getaway car and their hideout yielded a huge cache of arms, hand grenades and explosives, confirming fears that plans for a major attack were underway.
Authorities said at the time they believed the 19 were members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.
Al-Watan quoted unnamed security sources as saying Ghamdi and two others were arrested at an Internet cafe while the five others were apprehended at a house used by the men.
US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, warned Wednesday that the threat level in Saudi Arabia was still “high” and that there was no indication that the Riyadh bombings, in which eight US citizens died, were a “one-time attack.”
More attacks were “very likely,” he told reporters.
“Bombers are planning parallel activities, Al Qaeda have a very real activity in the kingdom. We are not convinced that the threats are over. They have many other cells, not only the cells which did the (Riyadh) attacks.”
Jordan said the 66-strong FBI team that arrived in Saudi Arabia to help out with the investigation into the car bombings would “likely conclude evidence gathering by the end of this week” and return home, leaving a small team to follow up on the interrogation of suspects.
Prince Nayef, for his part, said that “six of the nine suicide bombers had been identified while 21 people were currently in detention on suspicion of having links with the attacks in Riyadh.”
YEMENI SUSPECTS: Saudi authorities have recently handed over four Yemeni nationals suspected of being members of Al Qaeda to Yemen, a newspaper in Sanaa reported on Wednesday. Al-Thawra, citing a Yemeni security source, said “others suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda and sought by Yemeni security services are in the hands of Saudi authorities and are to be handed over to Sanaa shortly.”—AFP
