November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

RIYADH: An advertisement has been placed on a website seeking to recruit suicide bombers — volunteers who are ready to blow themselves up in “the battle against the infidels.”

“Are you ready to carry out a martyrdom operation?” says the ad, placed by an unidentified group on the Al Maasadah Al Jihadiyah site.

The site was recently shut down by the Saudi government.

“Death is written upon all of us. But the most important thing is how to die. Are we going to die as martyrs or in bed like cowards,” says the ad, posted two days after a truck loaded with explosives slammed into a residential compound in Riyadh, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 100, mostly Arab expatriates.

“You will not be killing yourself when you blow yourself up and die because it has been already written by God that you would die at that moment,” the ad said.

It urged those who were not “psychologically prepared” to kill themselves’ to “live like mujahideen and fight the infidels to witness the liberation of Palestine and the re-establishment of the Caliphate state.”

The ad indicates that extremist groups are “running out” of suicide bombers, according to Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, which reported the ad earlier this week.

It said the “unpopularity” of the latest suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and the mass condemnation have made it difficult for those groups to recruit new volunteers.

Meanwhile, renunciation of violence by a Saudi scholar, who was arrested for his support to Al Qaeda, has caused a ripple effect. Indications are that another scholar, Sheikh Nasser Al-Fuhaid, who was also arrested with Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair, may also come to fore within the next few days.

Sheikh Ali bin Khudair al-Khudeir, who was arrested three months ago for his public support for militants determined to overthrow the Saudi royal family, appeared on Monday on Saudi television saying that suicide bombings and attacks against the kingdom were sinful.

However, his somersault has sparked a debate among extremist groups.