JEDDAH, 30 November — At least 15 Saudis and 13 Yemenis fighting alongside the Taleban have been killed since the start of the US-led war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, the Okaz newspaper reported yesterday.
Quoting unidentified sources, the paper published the names and hometowns of 10 of the 15 Saudi nationals it said were killed. According to Okaz, they were Adil Rashid Al-Woraik (Alkhobar), Abdullah Al-Shubanat (Qassim), Sami Al-Harby (Riyadh), Rashid Al-Hawni (Qassim), Abdul Wahid Al-Qahtani (Riyadh), Yusuf Al-Madani (Madinah), Muadh Baashan (Makkah), Asim Al-Tihami (Abha), Faihan Al-Otaiby and Zaidan Muhammad Al-Shehari, 22.
Names of all but one of the 13 deceased Yemenis were published, without further details.
Five Kuwaiti members of the Al-Qaeda terror network, meanwhile, were killed during this week’s prison uprising in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when US warplanes pounded the compound, according to Kuwait’s Al-Watan paper.
Okaz said that six Saudis were among 11 people killed while performing prayers near Mazar-e-Sharif just before the start of Ramadan on Nov. 16.
The latest Saudi casualty, Adil Rashid Al-Woraik, 32, was killed Tuesday in the Liga area of Khost province.
As for the Kuwaitis, Al-Watan quoted unidentified sources as saying five, two of whom were related, died and an unspecified number were injured during the three-day battle in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper said that at least 50 Kuwaitis between the ages of 19 and 26 are still in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda. The report comes a day after the paper said Kuwait was coordinating with the United Nations to track down 50 nationals fighting in Afghanistan.
The newspaper quoted Kuwaiti security sources as saying that the authorities would not stop the fighters from coming home since "at the end of the day they are Kuwaiti citizens."
