Saudi al-Qaida leader vows to pursue even bloodier agenda

Posted on Thu, Jun. 03, 2004
Saudi al-Qaida leader vows to pursue even bloodier agenda
By Dave Montgomery
Knight Ridder Newspapers

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia - After a year of attacks that have taken at least 85 lives, the Saudi branch of the al-Qaida terrorist network has undergone a succession of leaders who differ in style and tactics but share an impassioned hatred of Westerners and the Saudi royal family.

Now the desert kingdom's branch is under the leadership of an elusive new chieftain who vows to pursue an even bloodier agenda "decorated with body parts and the smell of guns."

Alienated from his family and steeled by terrorist conflicts in five countries, Abdulaziz al Muqrin took over the Saudi operation after the last leader was killed in a shootout with police in March. Since then, authorities say, he's emerged as the architect of the network's most brazen attacks, including last weekend's 25-hour rampage in the oil-hub city of Khobar.

Unlike previous leaders, who were hunted down or arrested, al Muqrin has managed to escape a nationwide manhunt while showing a flair for publicity. After each violent episode, al Muqrin, believed to be in his mid-30s, airs defiant statements over the Internet, claiming responsibility for the attacks and threatening more.

Taken together, the messages constitute al Muqrin's manifesto for open warfare against the Saudi monarchy, Jews, Westerners and Christian missionaries trying to convert Muslims. He also declares an alliance between his Saudi terrorists and anti-Western insurgents in Iraq.

Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to Saudi Arabia's ambassador to London, calls al Muqrin the "toughest" in a series of perhaps a half-dozen leaders who have headed the Saudi network since the first of five major attacks, beginning in May 2003.

Three took place under al Muqrin's watch within the past three months, suggesting that the latest leader plans to strike with increased frequency, flamboyance and ruthlessness.

In April, after two earlier attacks in 2003 aimed at residential compounds, al-Qaida struck directly at the Saudi government with a massive suicide car bombing at police headquarters in the heart of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Next came an assault on the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, where four terrorists sprayed gunfire in an oil company office, killing six people, including two Americans. One of the bodies was dragged behind a car past horrified high school students, according to the Associated Press.

The attack last weekend in Khobar was even more brutal. Traveling across the kingdom to the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry along the Gulf Coast, terrorists stormed through office buildings and city streets before descending on a luxury residential compound and seizing more than 50 hostages.

The militants singled out non-Muslims and Westerners, according to witnesses, and slit the throats of nine hostages. Commandoes swept into the compound from helicopters to end the siege, but three of the terrorists escaped.

If his handiwork thus far is any indication, Muqrin appears to be shifting away from suicide car-bombings to commando-style raids. The Khobar attack was the first in which guerrillas carried out wholesale executions and took hostages.

Al Muqrin is believed to have a longtime relationship with al-Qaida's Saudi-born founder, Osama bin Laden, but many authorities and experts assume he exercises a fair amount of autonomy in overseeing his terrorist dominion in Saudi Arabia.

Authorities can barely even guess at his whereabouts, and aren't certain whether he's remained in the kingdom or directs his operations from afar.

According to Saudi officials, U.S. intelligence sources and profiles in the Arabic press, al Muqrin began drifting into al-Qaida circles in his late teens and participated in training camps and al-Qaida-linked operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Algeria, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. He reportedly served two years in a Saudi prison, where he studied the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

Al Muqrin seemingly has been a charter member of the terrorist rings linked to the five attacks in Saudi Arabia and was among the so-called Group of 19 fugitives sought by Saudi authorities just days before the first attack in May 2003.

In November 2003 he was identified as the ringleader of an aborted car-bombing plot, which U.S. and Saudi authorities said was intended for members of the royal family. Al Muqrin took over as chief of al-Qaida's operations in the Persian Gulf when Khaled Ali bin Ali Haj, a Yemeni, was shot to death in a confrontation with police March 15.

According to an account in a London-based Arabic newspaper, al Muqrin was born in Riyadh, dropped out of school and married when he was 19. He either divorced or deserted his wife and has a 10-year-old daughter. He also reportedly has an estranged relationship with his parents, although he stayed with them for two months after he was released from prison. His father has since appealed to him to give himself up.
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(Montgomery reports for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.)