August 26, 2005

PRINCE MOQRIN IBN ABDUL AZIZ CONVEYS THE CONDOLENCES OF SAUDI LEADERS TO THE FAMILY OF THE MARTYR AL SHAMANI. THE SAUDI MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR: AL-HASRY AND OWAIDA WERE KILLED IN CONFRONTATIONS WITH THE SECURITY FORCES IN RIYADH AND AL-MADINAH AL-MUNAWARRAH. THE FOREIGN PRESS PRAISES THE SAUDI SECURITY FORCES AND STRESSES THAT THE BLOW ON AL-QAEDA IS LETHAL. JORDAN DETAINS A NUMBER OF SUSPECTS INCLUDING IRAQIS, EGYPTIANS AND JORDANIANS RELATED TO THE ATTACKS IN AQABA. Prince Moqrin Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Madinah Region, visited the family of Emergency Forces' lance corporal martyr Mohammad Ibn Moawadh Al Shamani Al Harbi who was martyred following the security confrontation in Madinah of a number of those belonging to the deviant group. Prince Moqrin conveyed the condolences of Saudi leaders to the family of the martyr. In turn, the relatives of the late soldier appreciated this humanitarian gesture. Worshippers at the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah led by Prince Moqrin Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Madinah Region, and Prince Mohammad Ibn Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, performed funeral prayers for Emergency Forces' lance corporal duty martyr Mohammad Ibn Moawadh Al Shamani Al Harbi. The late soldier was martyred following his participating in a security operation in Madinah to chase a gang of the deviant group who brand people as infidels and call for bombings. An official source at the Ministry of Interior said 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. The killing of Saleh Al-Oufi, 39, leader of Al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, with three other terrorists including Majed Ibn Hamid Al-Hasry in gunbattles with Saudi security forces, has dealt a heavy blow to the militant network in the Kingdom. Al-Oufi, who was on a list of most wanted 26 terrorists published by the Interior Ministry last December, was shot dead by security forces in Madinah last Thursday in the largest such operation after the three-day Al-Rass shootout, which saw the killing of 15 terrorists. In Madinah, armed confrontation between security forces and terrorists took place in seven places, which resulted in the killing of Al-Oufi and Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Owaida and the arrest of 10 terror suspects. An Interior Ministry official identified the terrorist killed in Riyadh shootout as Hasry, whose body, which was blown to pieces as a result of an explosion, was found by police during a mop-up operation. Hasry had figured on the second list of 36 terror suspects published by the ministry two months ago. The official said police had arrested a number of people in various parts of the country, having connections with the cell. The death of Hasry, 29, brings down to 31 the number of militants on the list still at large. Moroccan Younus Mohammed Al-Hayari, who topped the list of 36, was shot dead during a battle with security forces in the capital on July 3. One suspect on the list has been arrested, a second has turned himself in to authorities, and a Yemeni who figured on the list has been confirmed detained in Yemen. A number of militants on the list are reported to have died fighting alongside anti-US insurgents in Iraq, but this has not been officially confirmed. Saudi Arabia has been successful in its campaign against Al-Qaeda militants blamed on a series of terrorist attacks across the country since May 2003, claiming the lives of 90 civilians and 42 police officers apart from 113 suspected militants. Only Abdullah Al-Rashoud and Taleb Al-Taleb from the December list of wanted terrorists remain at large while the majority on the second list is still on the run. There were reports that Rashoud had been killed in Iraq but not confirmed by Saudi authorities. An Afghan war veteran, Al-Oufi had been on the run from security forces ever since his name appeared on the list, moving from one region to another. On July 20 last year, Al-Oufi reportedly took part in a gunbattle in a Riyadh neighborhood. He ran away from the place after leaving his wife and three children there. Police handed over his family to their relatives. Saudi authorities announced the identities of two terrorists killed in the gun battles with security forces in Riyadh and Madina. Their identities were determined by DNA tests on human remains collected from the sites, the Interior Ministry said. They were identified as Majed Ibn Hamed Ibn Abdullah al Hasry who was on the most wanted list and was killed in Riyadh, and Mohammed Ibn Abdullah Ibn Mohammed Oweidah who was killed in Madina. A number of persons linked with the terrorist cell were arrested in different parts of the Kingdom, the statement said. Meanwhile international media followed the events which led to the killing of Al-Oufi in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many newspapers noted the victory of the Saudi security forces in their fight against terrorism and Al-Qaeda, and praised the efforts exerted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this field. In Italy Corriere della Sera said in its edition published on August 19, the presumed head of the Saudi cell of Al Qaeda, Saleh Al-Oufi, has been killed in the course of a shoot-out with the Security forces in the Al-Medina.Awfi has been killed with an accomplice. In Torino La Stampa said the Saudi Security forces have carried out the elimination of Saleh Mohammed Al-Oufi, the former prison guard and head of Al Qaeda in the entire Arabic Peninsula. The operation anti-terrorism was released in coincidence Medina, one of the two Saudi holy cities, where the special forces have attacked six places that were used like bases from the fundamentalist militants. In the last the last two years the Saudi forces have launched anti-terrorism operations against the cells of Al-Qaeda but the elimination of Al-Oufi means that king Abdullah is determined to use the iron fist against those groups of militants. In the United Kingdom Sky News said Al Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been killed in clashes with police in the western city of Medina. Saleh Mohammed Al-Oufi was among six militants killed after raids on locations across the country. He was considered to be the top leader of Osama bin Laden's militant network in Saudi Arabia. He was on a list of 26 most-wanted militants issued in Saudi Arabia in December 2003. The Interior Ministry said police raided six al Qaeda hideouts in Medina and came across a seventh where Al-Oufi and two others were holed up. "They opened fire heavily on the security forces and the pedestrians before police returned fire," a statement said. "Investigators were able to prove through verification procedures that one of the two killed is the wanted Saleh Al-Oufi." Also in the UK the Guardian said Saudi Arabia's security forces killed the regional leader of al-Qaida yesterday in a gun battle in the holy city of Medina, the interior ministry reported last night. Former prison guard Salih Al-Oufi, 39, was among up to six militants said to have died during a series of police swoops in Medina and the Saudi capital, Riyadh. On the other hand Jordan detained "several" suspects, a number of whom were Egyptians and Iraqis, in conjunction with the Aqaba rocket attack, a source close to the investigation told the Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) said. The arrests were made in the course of raids that began in the vicinity of the coastal resort city. Most of those detained carried unlicensed weapons or were somehow linked to the firing of the rockets said the source. The Jordanian owner of a warehouse, the roof of which was used Friday to launch three rockets Katyusha, was among those detained. One of the rockets hit the southern Israeli port of Eilat without causing serious damage. Another rocket narrowly missed a U.S. navy ship that was docked at the port of Aqaba since Monday, hitting a training centre for the Jordanian army, killing one soldier and wounding another. Authorities were pursuing four people who rented the warehouse: two Iraqis, one Egyptian and a Syrian. Most of the suspects were arrested in the Shalala quarter of the Red Sea port that overlooks the port during house-to-house searches, the officials said. Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said the suspects arrested over the past two days were being questioned. He did not elaborate on the number and nationalities of detainees, but the pro-government newspaper Al-Rai quoted security sources as saying that about 30 men belonging to the Jordanian, Iraqi, Egyptian and Syrian nationalities had been arrested. He said security forces were making headway in the probe into the firing of three Katyusha rockets that missed their targets but hit Jordanian facilities in the city, killing one soldier and injuring another. "The authorities have made advanced progress in their work," Yarfas told Reuters, without giving any details. Security sources said several Iraqis, a Syrian and scores of Egyptians and Jordanians were among those detained in the poor Shalala area, known as a hotbed of crime and a hide-out for smugglers and cross border drug trading. Police sources said a number of unused Katyushas were also found in the warehouse in the industrial area near the city center from where investigators say the rockets were launched. The authorities had earlier said the warehouse was leased a few days before the attack by Iraqis and Egyptians. One Jordanian security official told Reuters that while they have not conclusively established who ultimately sponsored the attacks several new leads point to Al-Qaeda network. He did not elaborate. The militant network has been blamed in recent years for several plots to attack Western targets and government installations in Jordan. The source said they had in recent months received several warnings that Aqaba port, a logistics hub and a main supply facility for US forces in Iraq, was a prime target for a planned Al-Qaeda attack. A security source said that electricity wiring was found in the site indicating plans to launch the missiles by remote control. Jordanian security sources said that preliminary investigations indicate that the attackers on the two US warships might have intended to attack other objectives, including the coastal palace of the Jordanian king Abdullah II in al-Aqaba and a complex of hotels visited by the American soldiers during their vacation from fighting missions in Iraq. The US warned its citizens to be careful and cautious. The US called on the American government employees not to move in Jordan accept at maximum necessity. The statement recommended the American citizens to keep away from Aqaba which is visited by large number of foreigners during the next coming days. Hundreds of Americans are working in various fields in Jordan. In Baghdad the Under Secretary of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior said Baghdad is ready to exchange information with Jordanian Authorities with regards to the names of Iraqi detained after the explosions of Al Aqaba. Al Qaeda in Iraq has issued a claim of responsibility for a rocket attack in Jordan just hours after Jordanian authorities said they had arrested the "prime suspect" in the attack on two U.S. warships that left a Jordanian soldier dead. The claim of responsibility, dated Tuesday and posted on web sites and distributed by e-mail, said al Qaeda in Iraq -- believed headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- waited to issue its claim until its fighter had returned safely to Iraq. In its statement about the arrest, the Jordanian government said three others suspects had escaped into Iraq. "Your brothers fired rockets toward their targets, the American crusader vessels that were at the Aqaba port as well as Eilat (Israel). "With God's grace, the brothers returned safely to Iraq." The claim said al Qaeda in Iraq could continue to "the centers of the infidels." The claim by al Qaeda in Iraq is the second claim of responsibility. Earlier a group with a checkered record of claims -- "The brigades of the Martyr Abdallah Azzam Qaeda in the Levant & Egypt" -- also claimed it was behind the attacks. The Jordanian government statement announcing the arrest was read on state television. It identified the suspect as Mohammad Abdullah Hassan al-Sihly, a Syrian citizen who lived in Amman. Jordan's government said he is connected with a known terrorist group based in Iraq. His two sons and a fourth man, an Iraqi national identified as their leader, also took part in the attack, authorities said. The attacks targeted but missed two American vessels moored in the Jordanian port of Aqaba for training exercises in the region. The government statement said al-Sihly entered Jordan in December 2004 after being wounded in Iraq, where U.S. troops have battled a persistent insurgency for more than two years since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. His sons, Abdullah and Abdul Rahman, and Mohammed Hameed Hassan al-Iraqi -- also known as Abu Mukhtar -- entered Jordan in early August, smuggling seven Katyusha rockets into the country. Three were fired in the attack on the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and the amphibious transport USS Ashland, authorities said. The group rented a warehouse in an industrial district of Aqaba, Jordan's Red Sea port, and set a timer to launch the rockets Friday morning. Al-Sihly's sons and Abu Mukhtar returned to Iraq after setting the rockets to fire, Jordan's government said. The group was in "direct contact" with leaders in Iraq, who were kept informed on their progress, the government said. There were no injuries among the nearly 4,000 sailors or Marines aboard the U.S. vessels. But one rocket struck a Jordanian military warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier and severely wounding another. Another rocket landed in the neighboring Israeli port of Eilat, but injured no one. The USS Ashland and its sister amphibious ship, the USS Kearsarge, have been docked in Aqaba, Jordan's only sea port, for the past 10 days, witnesses said. Both ships are reported to have left the port in response to the attack. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the attacks were "intended to hit the Israeli side and the Jordanian side as well". "We still don't know who is behind this act," he said.