Al-Qaida Lieutenant 'Taking Over Persian Gulf Operations'

US officials believe they have identified a young former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida's new chief of terror operations in the Gulf.

Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, a 29-year-old Yemeni now believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, is one of a new crop of al-Qaida operatives trying to fill the roles of senior bin Laden lieutenants who have been captured or killed since September 11, according to US officials.

"Capable replacements appear to be emerging, many of whom have demonstrated their ability to see previously planned operations through to fruition," according to one US intelligence report.

Abu Hazim is just one of the top al-Qaida leaders now at large, according to officials from US counterterrorism agencies.

Officials acknowledge there may be other emerging leaders they do not know about. The CIA and FBI, for example, did not learn that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was a top al-Qaida figure until well after the attacks took place.

Abu Hazim appears to be taking the place of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a key organiser of the USS Cole warship bombing and the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, officials say. Al-Nashiri was detained in the United Arab Emirates in late 2002.

Abu Hazim is on Saudi Arabia's list of 19 most-wanted al-Qaida operatives, listed under his real name of Khalid Ali Bin Ali Al-Hajj. He is believed to have trained in al-Qaida's Afghan camps in 1999 and later to have served in bin Laden's bodyguard. Before September 11, he travelled frequently to the Arabian peninsula, to south-east Asia and to Afghanistan.

US counterterrorism officials also link him to the May 12 bombings of residential complexes in Riyadh and possibly to some Saudi-based planning of operations targeting the United States directly.

Abu Hazim's emergence as a senior figure comes as al-Qaida is struggling to deal with the losses of many of its pre-September 11 operational commanders, including Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah.

Atef was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001, and Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah were later captured separately in Pakistan.

They forgot to mention 'ol OBL aka "Al Wormfood".

Oh well, the press fails in so many ways ... ;-)

He's dead! 3/15/04

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040316/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_militants&e=1&ncid=

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi security forces killed two militants, including one considered al-Qaida's chief of operations on the Arabian Peninsula, in a shootout in the capital of Riyadh on Monday, U.S. and Saudi officials said.

A Saudi Interior Ministry statement said the two were killed in the al-Nasseem neighborhood, in eastern Riyadh, in an exchange of fire with security forces on Monday afternoon.

Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, a Yemeni believed to be about 30, was the senior al-Qaida figure in the region, a U.S. counterterrorism official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official said his death represented a "major, very significant blow" to al-Qaida. "This guy was involved in ongoing terrorist planning and plotting," the official added.

The Saudi Interior Ministry identified the dead as Khaled Ali Haj, a Yemeni, and Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz bin Mohammed al-Mezeini, a Saudi. Haj is another named used by Abu Hazim, according to the U.S. counterterrosim official, who ranked third on the government's list of 26 most wanted militants. The other dead militant's name was not on the list.

/snip

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