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Moroccans planned saudi suicide flight { May 21 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030521/wl_nm/saudi_attack_dc_6http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030521/wl_nm/saudi_attack_dc_6
Yahoo! News Wed, May 21, 2003
World - Reuters
Three Moroccans Planned Saudi Suicide Plane Attack
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By John R. Bradley
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Three Moroccans arrested in Saudi Arabia earlier this week planned to hijack a civilian airliner and crash it into a bank building in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, a Saudi security source said on Wednesday.
"They were planning a suicide hijack to attack Saudi landmarks," the source told Reuters.
He said the arrests were made at Jeddah's airport on Monday, a day before the kingdom went on high alert in response to a warning that more suicide attacks by supporters of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda group may be imminent.
It was not clear if they were linked to last week's triple suicide bombings of foreign residential compounds in the capital Riyadh, or similar bombings in Morocco on Friday.
Forty-one people died in the Morocco attacks, while 34 died in the Riyadh bombings, which were the first to indiscriminately target civilians in the oil-rich kingdom.
"There was confusion at passport clearance. The three were behaving suspiciously. When asked if they were traveling together, one said 'no' and one said 'yes'. Then they were arrested," the Saudi security source said.
Saudi police established during questioning that the men, who were armed, were planning to hijack a plane and crash it into the headquarters of the kingdom's National Commercial Bank in Jeddah in a September 11-style attack, the source added.
"They were thwarted by Saudi forces who had no help from outside," the security source added, without giving further details. The FBI (news - web sites) and CIA (news - web sites) are helping Saudi Arabia investigate last week's bombings.
In a tape aired on Qatar's Jazeera television on Wednesday, a voice purported to belong to Osama bin Laden's top aide urged Muslims to intensify their holy war against Americans and Jews.
"The crusaders and the Jews only understand the language of murder, bloodshed...and of the burning towers," said Ayman al-Zawahri, referring to New York's World Trade Center twin towers, leveled by plane hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Saudi authorities said on Tuesday they had arrested three suspected al Qaeda members in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. The kingdom said on Saturday it had detained four al Qaeda suspects who it said had prior knowledge of the Riyadh attacks.
It was unclear if the three Moroccans detained in the suspected suicide attack in Jeddah were part of either group.
On Tuesday, the United States, Britain and Germany shut their embassies in the kingdom in response to warnings that more attacks may be imminent.
That move followed comments from Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who told reporters late on Monday he believed the suicide bombers who struck in Riyadh were planning a much bigger operation.
He said U.S. and Saudi intelligence were picking up "a high level of (electronic) chatter, regionally and in other international spots," which could indicate that something else was being planned.
Britain's ambassador to Saudi Arabia Derek Plumbly told BBC radio on Wednesday the terror threat in the kingdom was of a "completely new order" and of a greater scale than ever before.
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