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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (5641)	2/5/2003 6:39:10 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Al-Qaeda sympathisers fighting Saudi security forces: opposition 2003-02-05 14:51:05 Middle East Online 5 February 2003 Repeated shootings in Saudi Arabia involving police are not the acts of criminals as the authorities report but an armed response by sympathisers of al-Qaeda, opposition sources have said. "The mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) have decided to go for armed confrontation and to no longer surrender to the security services," said Saad al-Faqih, spokesman for the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA). "At least nine armed clashes have taken place in the last six or seven months, the most recent on Sunday in the eastern province of Qatif," he said, quoting sources within the security apparatus. Faqih said the clashes followed fatawa or religious decrees issued by unofficial Muslim leaders, including Sheikh Hmud bin Okla al-Shuaibi "who authorised, if necessary, armed resistance". A dissident living in Riyadh told AFP by telephone "these are not isolated incidents but part of an armed confrontation between us and security forces." "Such incidents will increase if there is an American attack against Iraq, and particularly if Riyadh grants military facilities to the Americans," said the Saudi, an "Afghan Arab" who fought against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan as did Osama bin Laden. Okaz newspaper reported Tuesday that a "wanted criminal" shot and killed a Saudi policeman in a gunbattle with security men who had arrived to arrest him in Qatif province. The man, who had been in jail, shot the officer several times on Sunday before escaping, the daily said. In other recent incidents a Kuwaiti soldier was killed in a shootout between police and four wanted men at a Riyadh apartment building on January 24 before the wanted men fled. The Kuwaiti was on a private visit to Saudi Arabia, according to Al-Riyadh newspaper. On Saturday, a Saudi policeman was slightly wounded by another wanted rebel who took shelter at a furnished apartment building during a police chase. Deputy Interior Minister Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz said the authorities had no information about the identity of the four killers of the Kuwaiti and did not know if they were linked to al-Qaeda. Faqih said the four men, whom he named as Rahil bin Adeb Matar al-Shemmari, Hajed bin Massud al-Matiri, Tayah bin Mfarrej al-Assimi al-Utaibi and Dhafer bin Qatim bin Said al-Shahrani, had been arrested in the past three days. Saudi Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdul Aziz mocked Sunday "the allegations from the so-called opposition that the morale of the intelligence services was at an all-time low," after the murder of the Kuwaiti. "The morale of our agents is at all-time high and they only have to come to the kingdom to see if the moral of our men is high or low," the prince told Okaz, referring to the opposition. Faqih, who has lived in exile in Britain since 1994, said "the Saudi intelligence services were pursuing mujahedeen who were believed to have infiltrated into the kingdom from Yemen with large quantities of explosives." The New York Times quoted Yemeni officials in October, including presidential adviser Abdul Karim al-Iriyani, as saying US military planes were flying over the Saudi desert seeking suspected al-Qaeda fighters who found refugee with bedouins en route to collect money further north.