A score of militants currently hunted by Saudi police are members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network who had planned to carry out major attacks in the kingdom, the interior minister said.
"Yes, all the cell members are known to be al-Qaeda operatives," Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz told Al-Riyadh daily. "But we must arrest them to be one hundred percent certain of this information."
Searches of the gunmen's hideout and their getaway car netted a huge cache of arms.
The Saudi press reported that the group had been planning major terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.
The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted a senior security official as indicating that the group had links with Al-Qaeda. “They had gone to Afghanistan,” he said, adding that their aim was to undermine the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Al-Majalla magazine reported that Al-Qaeda is preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11 after adopting a new operational structure which is impenetrable to US intelligence. “An attack against America is inevitable,” Al-Majalla quoted the network’s newly appointed spokesman Thabet ibn Qais as saying in an e-mail to the magazine. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
