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August 19, 2005 |
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THE CUSTODIAN OF THE TWO HOLY MOSQUES AND THE CROWN PRINCE PERFORM PRAYERS AT THE PROPHET'S MOSQUE AND GREET THE PROPHET PEACE BE UPON HIM IN AL-MADINAH AL MUNAWARAH. KING ABDULLAH IBN ABDUL AZIZ ORDERS THE PROMOTION OF A NUMBER OF JUDGES AND MILITARY OFFICERS. THE KILLING OF MOHAMED AL-OUFI LEADER OF THE WANTED TERRORISTS IN SAUDI ARABIA. A royal order was issued amending article IV of the organization of the Supreme Economic Council. The amendment appointed the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz as president of the council and Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, as his deputy. The royal order also stated that members of the council will be comprised of the chairman of the general committee of the cabinet, two ministers of state who are members of the cabinet, ministers of labor, commerce and industry, petroleum and mineral resources, finance, economy, planning, water and electricity and governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. A royal order was issued re-forming the Supreme Economic Council with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz as president of the council. The re-formation appointed Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, as vice president of the council. The royal order also stated that members of the council will be minister of state and member of the cabinet Dr. Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdullah Al Khowaitir; minister of labor; minister of state and member of the cabinet Dr. Mitlib Ibn Abdullah Al Nafaisah; minister of commerce and industry; minister of petroleum and mineral resources; minister of finance; minister of economy and planning; minister of state and member of the cabinet Abdullah Ibn Ahmad Ibn Yosif Zainal; minister of water and electricity and governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. A royal order was issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz. The order appointed member of the Commission of Senior Islamic Scholars Sheikh Mohammad Ibn Hasan Ibn Abdul Rahman Ibn Abdulateef Al Al Sheikh as member of the Standing Committee of Research and Fatwa (edicts) affiliated to the Commission of Senior Islamic Scholars at the Excellent Rank. The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has issued his orders for the promotion and appointment of 13 judges at the Ministry of Justice, and 411 members at the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution General. The Monarch has also ordered promotion and appointment of 960 officers with various ranks at the military sectors. On the other hand the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan on the occasion of assumption of power. The Monarch expressed his good wishes to the President and the people of Kyrgyzstan. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia on the anniversary of his country's independence day. In his own name and on behalf of the people and government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the monarch wished him continuous health and happiness and his people steady progress and prosperity. The King also lauded the good relations binding the two countries. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to President El Hadj Omar Bongo Odimba of Gabon on the anniversary of his country's independence day. In his own name and on behalf of the people and government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the monarch wished him continuous health and happiness and his people steady progress and prosperity. The King also lauded the good relations binding the two countries. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, received a message from Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. The message was delivered to Prince Sultan by Dr. Tyser Kamantash, the Personal Envoy of the Ukraine's Prime Minister, during a meeting. The meeting was attended by Dr. Prince Faisal Ibn Mishaal Ibn Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Supervisor of Data and Analysis at Prince Sultan's Office, and Ukrainian Ambassador to the Kingdom Leonid Horianiv. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud arrived in Madinah coming from Jeddah. At the airport, he was received by Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, a number of princes and officials and a group of citizens. The king was accompanied by a number of princes and officials. Upon arrival in Madinah, the King and the Crown Prince visited the Prophet's Mosque, greeted the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, and performed prayers. The king was accompanied by a number of princes and officials during his visit to the mosque. Following the mosque's visit, the king headed for Taibah Palace. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud left Jeddah heading for Madinah. At King Abdul Aziz International Airport, King Abdullah was seen off by Prince Abdullah Ibn Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz; other princes, ministers and a number of citizens and senior civil and military officials. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud paid a visit to King Abdullah Endowment for His Parents in Al Madinah Al Munawarah. King Abdullah, accompanied by Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General and other senior princes and officials, visited the endowment he set up in the name of his parents. At the venue, King Abdullah was received by Prince Muqren Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Madinah; members of the Council of Trustees of King Abdullah Endowment for His Parents; Prince Dr. Bandar Ibn Salman Ibn Mohammed Al Saud, Advisor to the king; Sheikh Abdul Bari Al Thibaiti; Ibrahim Al Tasan, Chief of the king's Special Affairs ; Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al Mihaisen; Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Hossein and Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Jarboo. During the visit, the King was also accompanied by Prince Mit'eb Ibn Abdul Aziz, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs; Prince Turki Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Nawaf Ibn Abdul Aziz, Special Advisor to the king; Prince Mamdouh Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Abdul Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Makkah Region; princes, ministers and a number of officials. The endowment, located in the north of Madinah's central region, includes a 21-story building. It houses a large hotel with 1,127 rooms, of which 180 are overlooking the Prophet's Mosque, and 84 furnished apartments with a total of 192 rooms. Later, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, joined worshippers at the prophet's mosque to perform Juma'a (Friday) prayers. Sheikh Salah Albidair, Imam and Preacher of the prophet's mosque, led the worshippers. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, arrived in Madinah coming from Jeddah. At the airport, Crown Prince Sultan was received by a number of princes and officials. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, had left Jeddah heading for Madinah. At King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Crown Prince Sultan was seen off by Prince Faisal Ibn Turki; Prince Bandar Ibn Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Abdullah Ibn Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Abdul Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Makkah Region; Major General Abdul Aziz Al Saif, Commander of the Western Region; Prince Major General Mansour Ibn Bandar Ibn Abdul Aziz; other princes, ministers and a number of senior civil and military officials. Prince Muqrin Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Madinah Region, hailed Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud's visit to Madinah. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency, he highlighted the importance of the visit and the care given by Saudi leaders to Madinah. On another scale Saleh Al-Oufi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, was killed in a shoot-out with police and security forces in Madinah. In a coordinated strike, security forces raided premises in both Riyadh and Madinah after locating armed terrorist suspects. In Riyadh, four terrorists died and one was arrested. In Madinah, two died including Al Oufi and one was injured. According to an analyst, they were traced from calls on their mobile phones. It later transpired that the mobile calls between the terrorists had also been intercepted by the US Embassy, the analyst said. The operations followed warnings by the diplomatic missions of Australia, Britain and the United States 10 days earlier that militant attacks were imminent against their properties and nationals in the Kingdom. The US Embassy in Riyadh and its consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran were closed on Aug. 8 and 9, following "credible information" about possible strikes. In Riyadh, the events took place near Exit 5 on the Riyadh Ring Road in the Al-Maseef neighborhood to the north of the city, the site of many wedding halls and new up-market houses inhabited by an affluent section of the society. It attracts young bachelor Saudis with its array of Internet cafes and coffee shops. Police had a suspect building under surveillance since Wednesday and contacted the insurgents, asking them to surrender. The terrorists tried to escape, but found themselves hemmed in by security forces. Trapped, they opened fire in a renewed attempt to escape. Three of them were gunned down, one was injured and captured. One of the dead militants, Farraj Al-Juwait, is believed to be on a wanted list of 36 terror suspects. According to Al-Arabiya TV, the body of a fourth militant was mutilated beyond recognition. Al-Arabiya said he probably blew himself up when the security forces tried to capture him. According to Brig. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, some of the militants were from the third list of the 36 most wanted men. He blamed the militants for initiating the gunfight. "We always give them (terrorists) time to surrender, but unfortunately they preferred the path of violence. We had to fire back in self-defense," he said. The detainees in the capital included the owner of the villa. He was arrested for providing logistic support to the terrorists. While the Riyadh raid was under way, a tandem operation was mounted in Madinah. According to security sources, up to seven separate operations were under way in the morning. In the neighborhood of Al-Bahar, a densely populated suburb of the city two km south of the Prophet's Mosque, police and security forces engaged a group of insurgents holed up in a house in the area. After negotiations failed, the insurgents opened fire at about midday and security forces responded. Eyewitnesses said that considerable damage to property occurred during the engagement. Speculation at the time of the raid that one of the two insurgents killed was Saleh Al-Oufi, the last but one remaining terror suspect on the list of 26 most wanted men and current head of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom, was later confirmed by Gen. Mansour Al-Turki. In a text he said, "It is confirmed now that Saleh Al-Oufi has been killed in Madinah." One injured insurgent was taken to hospital and a total of nine arrests were made in six other locations. The suspects were taken away for questioning. A police officer, Lance Cpl. Muhammad Muawad Al-Harbi, was wounded in the exchange of fire and later died and an bystander was severely wounded. Prince Muqrin, Madinah governor, and Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Prince Muhammad Ibn Naif attended the funeral prayers for Al-Harbi at the Prophet's Mosque. Having secured the area, police conducted an intensive search for weapons and explosives. The militants surrendered to the security forces in four of the raids in the city. In a fifth, however, they fought back, leaving at least one building gutted and several vehicles charred. Smoke from a raging fire billowed across the sky blanketing the surrounding landscape. A raid by security forces in early April which left 14 insurgents dead, four injured, and one in detention, engendered speculation that Al-Oufi had been killed in the operation. "There are some indications that one of the people killed could be Saleh Al-Oufi," an official statement said at the time. DNA tests later proved that it was not Al-Oufi. Following the deaths of Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin the probable mastermind of the kidnapping and beheading of American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. and his second in command and the reported capture by the security forces of Rakan Mohsin Mohammad Al-Saikhan, the No. 3, in an encounter with the Saudi security forces on June 18, 2004, the Saudi cell of Al-Qaeda, nominated Saleh Mohammed Al-Oufi as the head of the organization. He was fifth in its hierarchy of surviving leaders. Kareem Al-Tohami Al-Mojati was skipped over possibly because he is Moroccan and has limited knowledge of Saudi Arabia. It was Al-Oufi who led Al-Qaeda following the death of Al-Muqrin. He spearheaded the terrorist attack on the US Consulate building in Jeddah last year. Al-Oufi, a native of Madinah, was the next in line and the obvious choice. In 1994, he was deployed by Al-Qaeda against Russian troops in Chechnya. He was injured in one of battles there, forcing his return to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. The news of the death of Al-Oufi was greeted with joy by Madinah residents. Mansour Ali Al-Muhammadi, resident of Al-Saieh area, to the west of the Prophet's Mosque, was near the scene of the shootout. "I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy that finally a criminal was gunned down and sad that such an incident could happen in the peaceful city of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). These terrorists have no dignity and do not care about people and no one is sorry that they are dead." Antiterrorist offensive was the first since the liquidation of Yunus Al-Hayyari, the Al-Qaeda terrorist from Morocco, recently. When he assumed power, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz announced that there would not be any letup in the fight against the deviant forces. Later an official source at the Ministry of Interior issued the following statement: Security Forces managed to track down a gang of the deviant group who brand people as infidels and call for bombings. The security forces tracked down the gang through carrying out simultaneous security operations in both Madinah and Riyadh. The security forces chased those belonging to the deviant thinking at six different locations near the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. The security forces arrested nine of them and when the security forces headed for a sixth location harboring three of them, the security forces and pedestrians came under heavy fire. The situation was tackled as necessary. Two of them were killed and the third was injured and arrested. An expatriate was seriously injured while a security man was moderately injured. Investigation authorities have positively identified one of the two killed as Salih Al-Oufi who is wanted for security authorities. At the same time, the security forces chased one of the gang members who infiltrated into Riyadh under disguise. He ended up in a residential location north of Riyadh. The location was surrounded and those inside were warned. A person surrendered to the security forces while the forces came under heavy fire. The source of the shooting was silenced. When the location was cleared, human remains were found. They resulted from a close detonation. They may belong to one body or more. Identification measures will be conduced. One of the security men was slightly injured in this incident. The security forces managed to seize arms, explosives, various documents and money in these operations. |
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