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Saudis arrest 8 riyadh bombing { May 29 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/international/middleeast/29SAUD.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/international/middleeast/29SAUD.html
May 29, 2003
Saudis Arrest 8 in Deadly Riyadh Bombing
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 28 — A series of police raids around the holy city of Medina on Tuesday and today led to the capture of eight suspected militants wanted in connection with the bombing attacks on residential compounds in the Saudi capital.
The Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef, told a news conference in the northern city of Tabuk that 11 people had been arrested, including the foreign-born wives of three of the men.
Despite the arrests, the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert W. Jordan, said today that the United States still believed that chances were high of another attack.
Prince Nayef, in remarks broadcast on television, said the men arrested were linked to the bombings on May 12 that killed 34 people including 9 suicide bombers. The prince said the bodies of six of the bombers had been identified, and that four of them were among the 19 members of a cell that was disrupted on May 6 with the discovery of a huge arms cache within sight of one of the compounds attacked.
The prince said those arrested today included three radical clerics known for their support of militant causes: Ali al-Khudair, Ahmed bin Humud al-Khaldi and Nasser bin Hamad al-Fahd.
The three signed a fatwa, or religious ruling, immediately after the attacks saying it was the religious duty of Saudis to shelter the perpetrators from the law, as they were engaged in holy war.
Saudi and American officials say Al Qaeda remained the prime suspect.
Prince Nayef did not provide details of the arrests, but Saudi press reports said at least three people suspected of being Qaeda members had been arrested in an Internet cafe in Medina, including Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who the reports speculated had been the main planner of the attacks.
Mr. Ghamdi was at the cafe with two other men, the papers said. The computers they had been working on were seized.
Prince Nayef would neither confirm nor deny Mr. Ghamdi's role, saying a full report would be released whenever the investigation was concluded.
Mr. Ghamdi's name and picture were included among those of the 19 men sought in connection with the arms cache. Mr. Ghamdi dropped out of college to join the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, making several trips to Afghanistan, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan reported.
A letter circulating on the Internet that is attributed to him exhorts the faithful to join the holy war against the West because the struggle had not reached its peak. But an elder of his family, 13 of whose members have been accused of taking part in terrorist attacks, denied to the Arabic daily Al Hayat that the letter had been written by Mr. Ghamdi.
Saudi law enforcement officers have taken scores of people into custody since the attacks, but the latest arrests appear to have been the first of anyone believed to be directly linked to the plot. Prince Nayef said 21 people had been arrested so far who had been linked to the attacks, including those today. The others arrested were not directly involved, Saudi officials have said.
Web sites that serve as the militants' grapevine in Saudi Arabia have reported that two of the clerics were killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers. Prince Nayef said no one had been killed. A senior Saudi official said last week that the three had fled to Iraq when the war erupted.
A day earlier, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, expressed concern that arms were reaching the militants through smuggling across the Iraqi border. He said the Saudis planned to take up the issue with the American occupation officials in Iraq.
Ambassador Jordan said today that concerns about further attacks in Saudi Arabia had not diminished. The embassy has said previously that at least 50 dependents and non-essential workers have been sent out of the country and thousands of expatriates have also departed.
"We are not convinced this threat is over or that is in any way diminished by what we have seen," the ambassador told a news conference at the embassy. "We do not believe that this was a one-time event, so our threat level remains elevated at this time."
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