Posted on 06/21/2004 10:39:09 AM PDT by BushisTheMan
Muqrin was killed with two associates on Friday An ex-Saudi policeman has become leader of the al-Qaeda militant group in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports from the troubled kingdom. Saleh al-Oufi, 38, will take over from Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who was killed by police on Friday.
Saudi security forces have been hunting al-Qaeda members in Riyadh, following the execution of a US hostage.
Saudi analysts say the new leader will be a formidable foe as he been a key figure in the group since 1985.
Al-Qaeda is believed to have been behind the abduction and beheading of US defence worker Paul Johnson, the latest foreign victim of a series of militant Operations in the kingdom.
Correspondents say the rise of Mr Oufi will do nothing to dispel suspicions that al-Qaeda is closely linked to members of the security forces in Saudi Arabia.
Soft targets
Adel al-Jubeir, adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, repeated official denials of any militant-police links in an interview with US television network CNN.
"If that were the case they would not be going after soft targets, they would be going after government installations," Mr Jubeir said.
However, a pro-militant website has claimed police sympathisers provided uniforms and cars used during Paul Johnson's kidnapping.
An article recounting the abduction on the website Sawt al-Jihad, or Voice of the Holy War, said militants abducted Mr Johnson at a fake checkpoint on a main road outside Riyadh on 12 June.
The website thanked those "who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus" who it said had provided the equipment used for the deception.
Experienced
Arab media reports say Mr Oufi was born in Medina, and after jobs with the Saudi police and prison service left in the early 1990s to join Muslim fighters in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
He reportedly returned to Saudi Arabia in 1995 after being wounded. Until now he had been responsible for training, recruitment and logistics, running secret al-Qaeda camps in the kingdom.
Saudi analysts say his experience and origins will make him a more effective leader than Muqrin was.
"Saleh al-Oufi is the most dangerous" of the Al-Qaeda lieutenants left alive in Saudi Arabia, says a report in al-Hayat newspaper.
He is reported to have met al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan shortly before the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
Dead man walking.
Amen.
His swearing-in ceremony should be a real bang-up event. These guys are too dumb to be terrorists. They announce the identity of their new leader publicly.
I just hope that we avoid sending him to his glory. A bullet-riddled, living body sent home in the back of a pickup truck would deny him that, make him a burden and a source of warning to his relatives and associates, serve as a powerful warning to upcoming jihadists, and allow him ample time to consider the error his evil ways.
We need to change our rules of engagement for dealing with those humanoid vermin for whom death is a "religious" goal and duty and a seeming portal to paradaisical glory.
To do so would represent a major approach to putting an end to international terror.
Why hasn't this occurred to all of the diarrhea-mouthed "terrorism experts" clogging up the media and our national security establishment? Do FReepers have to provide obvious solutions to the world's seemingly intractable problems??
Yassin was still was a terrorist leader though barely alive. Better dead!
It all depends on your definition of "alive".....
Ya gotta love the bbc......nevermind.
FMCDH(BITS)
Meanwhile, Mubarak has turned over the Egyptian government to his PM and has flown to Europe for treatment of a "slipped disc". Rumors had been swirling about his being ill, and this signals to me that the Mubarak era has come to an end. This is relevant because with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Egypt is poised to take up a security role there in the vacuum.
As for the attacks on the pipelines in Iraq, it is becoming more obvious that Iran is behind them. Their recent force relocations on the Iraqi border are probably in preparation for new SAM emplacements, as well as clearing houses for muj sneaking into Iraq.
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