> The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
>
> Saudis hold 13 tied to terror plots in kingdom
> Howard Schneider The Washington Post
> Wednesday, June 19, 2002
>
> Aides acknowledge that Qaeda is still active in the country
>
> CAIRO Saudi Arabia has arrested 13 suspected Al Qaeda members who
> allegedly plotted missile and bomb attacks in the kingdom and may have
> fired a rocket at a U.S. warplane.
>
> The arrests, announced by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday but carried
> out over several weeks, are the first official acknowledgment by Saudi
> officials that the Qaeda organization remains active in their country.
>
> Coupled with the recent arrest in Morocco of three Saudi nationals
> planning to attack American warships in the Straits of Gibraltar, they
> also highlight the prominent role that citizens of the conservative
> country play in Al Qaeda - something the country's leadership has
> battled hard to play down since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New
> York and Washington. Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, is a native of
> Saudi Arabia, as were 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
>
> "There is an indication that this was a serious group that had
> explosives in different parts of the country," said Jamal Khashoggi,
> editor of the English-language Arab News and an expert on extremist
> groups. "We aren't surprised Al Qaeda is active here and there, why not
> in its home territory?"
>
> Since Sept. 11, the Saudi authorities have detained and interrogated
> dozens of suspected militants and have routinely questioned any Saudi
> citizens returning from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Saudi newspapers
> reported Tuesday that 160 such people were recently released after being
> cleared of any militant connections.
>
> The arrest of the 13 suspects - 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese -
> indicates that bin Laden's group still functions on its leader's home
> soil. It also shows that Al Qaeda was able to reach the advanced stages
> of planning violent operations inside the country.
>
> The information by the official Saudi Press Agency did not supply names
> or give much detail about the group. However, it said that the 13
> suspects had smuggled explosives and weapons into the kingdom and hidden
> supplies in several locations in preparation for strikes around the
> country.
>
> The group was apparently behind a suspected rocket attack directed
> against a U.S. plane or other target at the Prince Sultan Air Base,
> south of Riyadh. The presence of several thousand American troops and
> several hundred aircraft at the Saudi installation has been one of bin
> Laden's chief motivations for declaring a jihad against the United
> States. The prospect of a lone terrorist with a shoulder-launched rocket
> has been of enough concern that American pilots use special flight
> routines to avoid flying too low over the perimeter of the base. In
> early May, military officials did find an empty missile tube at the
> outskirts of the facility. Though no base pilots or personnel ever
> reported sighting a missile launch - the tube was found well out of
> range to be a threat - the discovery raised the possibility that
> terrorists were actively targeting the facility.
>
> A Saudi official said Tuesday that the subsequent investigation traced
> the missile launcher to a Sudanese Al Qaeda member who had smuggled it
> into the country from Yemen, with local assistance, and had since
> returned to Khartoum.
>
> On May 18, according to information supplied by the Sudanese government
> this week, the Saudis had asked that the man be arrested and sent to
> Saudi Arabia for trial. According to the Sudanese government release, he
> was arrested in Khartoum and confessed to having fired the rocket at a
> U.S. plane. His extradition this week prompted the Saudi disclosure that
> he was part of a much larger Al Qaeda cell, and the apparent missile
> attack only one in a series of planned operations.
>
> A Saudi official described the Sudanese suspect as the central figure in
> the cell, but added that Saudi investigators were increasing efforts to
> find any other active Al Qaeda members.
>
> "If they succeeded to do what they did, sure they will continue," the
> official said.
>
> The Saudi operation appears to fit the pattern described by those
> involved in the recent arrests in Morocco. They said that late last year
> bin Laden ordered Al Qaeda operatives to disperse from Afghanistan and
> begin a series of freelance strikes against "American and Jewish
> interests."
>
> It also fits the group's pattern of segregating operations. Six of those
> arrested were apparently concerned only with smuggling supplies and
> ensuring that their Sudanese compatriot got in an out of Saudi Arabia
> safely.
>
> Saudi sniper attack reported
>
> A sniper opened fire early this month on an Australian employee of BAE
> Systems in the northern part of the kingdom, a Saudi newspaper reported
> Tuesday, according to Reuters. The English-language Arab News quoted
> officials of BAE, formerly British Aerospace, and diplomats in Riyadh as
> saying that the Australian man was not hurt in the June 5 attack in the
> northern city of Tabuk, home to a large Saudi Air Force base. The
> unidentified sniper fled and the police were still looking for him.
>
>
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