Al-Qaeda’s suspected
chief in Saudi Arabia was among at least 14 militants
killed in last month of fierce gun battles with security
forces in the north of the kingdom but how they killed?
Another Al-Qaeda suspect on Riyadh’s list of 26
most-wanted militants was killed in another clash in the
Saudi capital.
The London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
said Al-Qaeda commander Saleh al-Oufi, a former police
officer who was number four on the most-wanted list, had
been found dead when fighting in the northern Saudi town
of Al-Rass finally ended on Tuesday. The raging gun battles
, which began Sunday, were the bloodiest between militants
and Saudi security forces who have been battling a wave
of violence for almost two years. ‘One of the dead,
who had an amputated leg, was found in a wheelchair,’
the opposition said in an Internet statement.
‘According to information available to the security
services, it is Saleh al-Oufi. But the body was burnt
and it is not possible to be certain of his identity before
a DNA analysis.’ At least 14 militants, including
a number of most-wanted Al-Qaeda suspects, were killed
in the fighting with security forces who laid siege to
the suspects holed up in a house in Al-Rass, and several
Saudi newspapers reported that Oufi was among the dead.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television reported Monday that
two other top Al-Qaeda leaders had been killed, identifying
them as Saudi national Saud al-Otaibi and Moroccan Abdel
Karim al-Mejati, although the government could not confirm
the report. Another suspected Al-Qaeda militant on the
list, Abdul Rahman al-Yazji, was killed in a separate
clash in the capital on Wednesday, a security source said.
Yazji was shot dead during a raid by security forces on
a house where he was holed up with a comrade in an industrial
area in the south of the capital, the source said.
Oufi, who had previously been reported dead, resurfaced
recently in recordings attributed to him on a website
voicing support for the network’s Iraqi branch and
call for attacks on ‘crusader’ targets in
the region.
Oufi reportedly took over as Al-Qaeda commander in Saudi
Arabia in June. The Interior Ministry said 14 members
of the ‘deviant group’ - official terminology
for Al-Qaeda suspects — had been confirmed killed
in the clashes which began Sunday, although a security
source said earlier that up to 18 militants were dead.
Another five militants were wounded and arrested, while
a sixth surrendered, the interior ministry said in a statement,
adding that 14 security men were wounded.
Security sources at the scene said security forces stormed
the last house where militants were barricaded in after
the gunmen had been moving from house to house. A campaign
of bombings and shootings blamed on Al-Qaeda has killed
90 civilians in Saudi Arabia since May 2003, according
to official figures.
Thirty-nine members of the security forces and 106 militants
have also been killed, including the 14 confirmed by the
Interior Ministry to have died.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is Saudi-born and 15 of
the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks
in the United States were Saudis. The unrest in the world’s
top oil exporter has raised fears about the security of
the West’s supplies but Saudi authorities insist
that the oilfields, concentrated in the east of the kingdom,
are well protected. King F6ahd on Monday said the government
was determined to ‘eradicate terrorism and fight
the deviant group.’
