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| Arabia |
| Qaeda threatens to abduct Saudi royals & ministers |
| 2010-06-04 |
| Al-Qaeda has threatened to kidnap Saudi princes and ministers in order to secure the release of a female al-Qaeda operative arrested by Saudi forces, Al Arabiya said on Thursday. In an audiotape played on Al Arabiya, an al-Qaeda regional commander threatened "major operations" against the kingdom following the arrest of Haylah al-Qassir. Qassir was believed to be responsible for recruiting women to the global militant group as well as handling money issues, Al Arabiya said. "Al-Qaeda is organizing cells to kidnap...princes, ministers and officials including military commanders," Saeed al-Shehri said in the audiotape. Shihri, who is purportedly number two in the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, insisted that families of prisoners held in Saudi Arabia should take arms to secure their release instead of groveling to officials. Qassir, called "the lady of al-Qaeda", is the widow of an al-Qaeda operative killed six years ago, al Arabiya said. The regional Yemen-based arm of the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), jumped to the forefront of Western and Saudi security concerns after it claimed responsibility for a failed December attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane. In April, the group tried to assassinate the British ambassador to Yemen when a suicide bomber threw himself into the path of his convoy in the capital, Sanaa. Only the suicide bomber died, but the bold hit signaled that a recent crackdown by the Yemeni government on the global militant group has done little to curb its ambitions to carry out attacks in the region and beyond. Last August, a 23-year-old AQAP suicide bomber posing as a repentant militant, tried to kill Prince Mohammed bin Nayef who heads Saudi Arabia's anti-terrorism campaign. Yemen, struggling to curb a northern Shiite insurgency and a southern separatist movement, has faced international pressure to quell domestic conflicts in order to focus on fighting a resurgent al-Qaeda in the impoverished country. Yemen is the ancestral homeland of the Saudi-born al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who has been stripped of his Saudi nationality. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Yes, yes, yes! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-06-04 03:15 |