RIYADH, 6 December — Some 45 Saudis fighting alongside the Taleban militia have been killed since the start of the US-led campaign on Afghanistan, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Okaz daily said Ayman Abdul Rahman from Buraidah, 340 km from Riyadh, was killed Monday, becoming the 45th Saudi to die during the US war on Afghanistan that began on Oct. 7.
The paper estimated that some 200 Saudis were in Afghanistan before the war, but other reports put the number at as high as 1,000.
Okaz said 30 Saudis were killed in one incident when their bus was bombed by US jets near Mazar-e-Sharif. Two others were executed by the Northern Alliance, while the rest were killed during air raids.
The paper said it has the names of all 45 killed, but only published a number of them.
Hundreds of "Arab Afghans" and other foreigners reportedly surrendered to the Northern Alliance as the Taleban lost their hold on key areas around Afghanistan.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted local police chief Hazrat Ali as saying that around 1,000 Arabs are based in rugged mountains near eastern Afghanistan’s Tora Bora cave complex.
"The Arab nationals are in the mountains and around 1,000 of them are hiding in Melawa," Ali said.
Melawa lies about 10 km northwest of Tora Bora, a narrow, sparsely inhabited valley surrounded by high peaks which are honeycombed with caves.
"Arab Afghans" are Arabs who originally went to Afghanistan to help fight the Soviet invasion of the country in the 1980s.
