Saudi prince killed in Al Qaeda ambush: reports

Hi Pakistan ^ | November 30, 2003 | AFP

[aculeus]

ALGIERS, Nov 30: A Saudi prince was ambushed and killed by suspected extremists while hunting gazelles in the Algerian desert, newspaper reports said on Saturday.

Reports said the prince, identified as Talal bin Abdelaziz Al-Rasheed, was shot and killed during the night of Thursday to Friday in a confrontation in which nine people were killed and several injured.

He was described as a wealthy businessman and the editor of the Saudi illustrated magazine Fawasel.

The convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles was ambushed in the Djelfa region, 250 kilometres south of Algiers, reports said.

Three Saudi nationals and four Algerians were taken hostage but were later rescued unharmed about 40 kilometres away in an operation by security forces, the daily El Khabar said. Officials neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Le Soir d'Algerie said the Saudi government sent a special aircraft to Algiers on Friday to take back the prince's body. Newspapers said the attack was probably carried out by members of the largest extremist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which in September claimed its allegiance to Al Qaeda network.

The daily L'Expression said the attackers were probably acting in accordance with the instructions of their leader, Osama Bin Laden, who "has called the Saudi royal family a puppet of the Americans." -AFP

[aculeus]

Didn't notice this reported previously.

[hellinahandcart]

"Hi, Pakistan!" (waving)

[hellinahandcart]

No, really, how many dead Saudi princes does this make?

[Salvey]

Ah, the chickens are....(you know the rest)

[dighton]

They must be down to their last eight thousand or so.

[Nonstatist]

How many dead Saudi princes does it take to change a light bulb?

[ClearCase_guy]

Saudi princes die when the House of Saud needs to clean it's house. Hard to say if this guy's ties to al-Quaeda were too close, or not close enough.

[dep]

Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat

i don't care about saudi princes one way or the other, but these guys have a real knack for choosing a name!

[aculeus]

One blogger's sinister explanation (found here: http://regnumcrucis.blogspot.com/).

So the orders came directly from bin Laden, eh? That's definitely significant and could tie into al-Qaeda's pledge after three of their clerics were arrested following the first Riyadh bombings that the royal family would pay if any harm came to them. This could be a delayed fullfillment of that threat or it could be bin Laden providing a stick to sweeten his clerics' recent initiatives (the carrot) to establish some kind of negotiations with the Saudi government that I suspect involve an increase in the amount of money being paid to al-Qaeda through Saudi charities and other fronts in the Magic Kingdom.

[RussianConservative]

One down, 20,000 to go...he probably knew to much and die of dehydration/plane crash/auto crash etc. Saudi cover arse ping!

[blackdog]

When I went to Flight Safety Int'l during the late 70's for pilot training, the place was packed with Saudis who were all royal princes of some sort. They would buy a new car and just abandon it if it got a flat or some minor malfunction. They had hookers 24/7 living in their dormatory. Horrible pilots. No decision making skills and easily sidetracked(which is not a good thing for a pilot to be). They have the distinction of performing the only mid-air collision in the school's history. They managed to mid-air a Falcon 20.

[GulliverSwift]

If this was al Quaida, I wonder how many more royals have to die before the Sauds will stop funding them and promoting extremism.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Nice to see that no skeptical/cynical people frequent FR.

[concerned about politics]

If this was al Quaida, I wonder how many more royals have to die before the Sauds will stop funding them and promoting extremism.

Or they could pull a Democrat and surrender to them. Maybe Al Quata needs more cash, and this is extortion. "Pay, or there will be more".

[evets]

Q: Mr. Secretary, the Saudis said yesterday, "One strike on one Arab country is a strike on all." Rumsfeld: Who said this? Q: A Saudi prince embraced by the Iraqi... Rumsfeld: "A Saudi prince" -- do you know how many Saudi princes there are? (Laughter.)

[Never2baCrat]

So what? A prince here, a prince there........

[justshutupandtakeit]

Yeah, really. It is almost like saying "A Chicagoan said...." as though all Chicagoans believe the same things.

[Indie]

Where is Tarzan when you need him. (violins begin to play softly.)
I know I wouldn't be goin' to any American hating third world country and given' 'em my money to hunt.
Poor prince. Wrong place at right time.

[gridlock]

How many dead Saudi princes does it take to change a light bulb?

They have Philipino man-servants to do that sort of thing...