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| Arabia | ||
| Soddies bust 2 al-Qaeda members | ||
| 2005-10-18 | ||
| Saudi authorities have seized two suspected members of the al-Qaida network, including a Nigerian national who was distributing provocative leaflets. Interior ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki said Monday that police patrolling the holy city of Mecca in western Saudi Arabia arrested the Nigerian Sunday afternoon as he was distributing leaflets. "The man is believed to belong to the stray group," Turki said, using an expression referring to al-Qaida, whose members, in the government's view, have deviated from the straight path of Islam. Turki said another suspect was arrested Sunday in Riyadh and taken away for interrogation. Additional: Riyadh, 18 Oct. (AKI) - The Saudi police in the holy Muslim city of Mecca arrested a group of Nigerian immigrants on Monday who were distributing leaflets carrying a big photo of Osama bin Laden. According to Arab newspaper al-Hayat, before they were detained by the security forces, the Nigerians had handed out many copies of the flyer in at least five areas of the city, which is the most important in the Islamic world. The contents of the leaflet were highly critical of the Saudi government and close to the Jihadist thinking, the newspaper reports. During the interrogations it emerged that the young Nigerians had been approached by an unknown man who, in exchange for a large sum of money, had asked them to distribute the flyers everywhere. Taking advantage of the Nigerians' scant knowledge of Arabic the man had told them the document merely contained advice and direction of a religious nature.
Also on Monday, Saudi police uncovered a terror cell in the Kharaj area, 100 kilometres to the south of Riyadh, finding explosives and weapons in an apartment there, which had been rented out recently by militants who escaped a gun battle with the security forces in the northern city of al-Rass in April. At least fourteen militants were killed in the stand-off, which lasted three days. One of the dead was reported to be local al-Qaeda leader Saleh Al-Oufi, but this turned out to be false, as al-Oufi was then killed in Medina in August after another three day stand-off with the security forces.
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| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Saudi authorities have seized two suspected members of the al-Qaida network What, They forgot to pay this month's dues to the royal family? |
| Posted by: Scott R 2005-10-18 14:24 |
| #1 ...including a Nigerian national who was distributing provocative leaflets. Dude, don't you know enough to use e-mail for your scams? Sheesh... |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-10-18 09:25 |