Posted on 08/27/2006 3:07:02 PM PDT by FairOpinion
RIYADH: Four militants arrested in Jeddah this week were part of a group of 34 men rounded up in an effort to prevent a resurgence of Al Qaeda violence, the Saudi interior ministry said yesterday.
The four Islamist radicals surrendered on Monday after Saudi security forces besieged the building where they had an apartment in the Red Sea port.
"Security work led to the arrest of 34 people of different nationalities in Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh and Jeddah because they belonged to the 'deviant group' and had links to escapees from the Malaz prison," a statement on official news agency SPA said.
Officials have said that two of the men arrested on Monday were among seven people who escaped from the Malaz detention centre in Riyadh in June.
Yesterday's statement said weapons and locally-made explosives were found in the Jeddah apartment.
"They were using the flat as a hide-out and as a factory for instruments of death and destruction," it said. It did not specify when the other 30 men were arrested but said they had been under surveillance in recent weeks.
Officials say more than 136 militants and 150 foreigners and Saudis, including security personnel, have died in attacks and clashes with police since May 2003, when suicide bombers hit three Western housing compounds in Riyadh.
The violent campaign by supporters of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has ebbed in the face of toughened security measures.
King Abdullah said in comments published yesterday that he had personally intervened to ensure that the lives of militants - whom he called "rascals", using an Arabic word normally used to refer to naughty children - were spared in the Jeddah siege.
The comments in an interview with the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat suggested that Saudi Arabia is increasingly confident that it has tamed the three-year-old militant campaign.
The MSM is too busy reporting bad news, to bother to tell us about our many successes.
PING
34 down, millions more to go.
And more successes:
US military insists al-Qaeda facilitator was killed in a raid
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=318423&sid=SAS
Kabul, Aug 27: The US military today insisted that a raid earlier this week that left eight people dead in Eastern Afghanistan, targeted an "al-Qaeda associate" who was also killed.
Col Tom Collins, the chief US spokesman, said Alam Zer, described as a commander of an Islamic extremist group belonging to the afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was the target of the Thursday's raid in Eastern Kunar province.
President Hamid Karzai ordered a probe Friday into the killings after police officials insisted civilians trying to resolve a feud were killed.
But Collins said that Zer was "a confirmed al-Qaeda associate ... (who) had links in Pakistan and in the training and facilitating the movement of Arab fighters into Afghanistan."
US forces have been stepping up operations along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan which is believed to be a region where al-Qaeda fugitives are at large along with allies from the toppled Taliban regime and extremists belonging to Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group.
"The aim of this operation was to capture Alam Zer, but it was his forces who fired on coalition forces and we returned fire," Collins told reporters.
Seven suspected al-Qaida members, including Zer were killed in the gunfight, Collins said. A child was also killed and a woman badly wounded.
Terrorists who kill innocent people are "rascals" according to King Abdullah?????
Almost three dozen more sleazeballs off the streets. I'm sure a few of them will have some loose lips, especially given Saudi Arabia's concern with human rights. :)
I had stop payment for the website, due to problems with money, then Katrina hit here. Is there something you would like to say to me, let us talk.
Jeff Davis
DON'T TEST ME. I AM TOLERANT, BUT NOT OF IGNORANT IDIOTS THAT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY TEXT.
Jeff Davis
Swine domain name squatters! Oh well. Hope you can bring your website back up again. Cheers.
Jeff Davis
If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war. -- George Washington
Still, I think I'll take them up on refinancing my Allah. Hope that doesn't offend any Muslims. Terribly sensitive bunch.
Offend the Muslims please, I'll blame it on my wife's cooking. (the real WMD) ;)
Oooooh...
I want to hear that wealthy Saudis are no longer funding madrasass schools.
Like the lib/indoctrination factories here - until those are destroyed, you can't arrest enough of them since more are constantly being created.
And I want Anna Kournikova to sponge bathe me. What's your point?
Apparently I needed the /s tag.
That's nice that the Saudis are cracking down on AQ types in their country but until their underwriting of terrorist factories goes bye-bye, it is kind of like emptying Lake Superior with an eye dropper.
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