JEDDAH, 19 April 2006 — Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it had arrested five more militants linked to the Abqaiq refinery attack, and seized 1.5 tons of explosives from a hide-out in Riyadh.
Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, said the five suspects were arrested in the aftermath of clashes in a Riyadh neighborhood in late February that killed another five linked to the Abqaiq attack.
Al-Turki said he did not know if the five men were members of the Al-Qaeda terror network and whether they had been planning to carry out fresh attacks using the materials seized at the Riyadh hide-out. Aside from the explosives, three cars, 16 pistols, eight machine guns and rifles, fake license plates, ammunition, mobile telephones, video equipment, tapes and compact discs were seized at the Sulai hide-out.
State television aired a video seized by police showing militants preparing the two vehicles used in the Abqaiq attack. It said the tape and explosives were found in a warehouse outside Riyadh.
The documents seized from the den “reveal the true intentions of those who abused their religion and homeland and turned themselves into destructive tools in the hands of the hateful,” a ministry statement said.
The footage identified some of the militants who prepared the attack, including an Al-Qaeda leader, Fahd Al-Juwair, who was killed days after the attack.
It showed another militant identified as Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri sitting behind the steering wheel of a pick up truck holding an assault rifle.
The television identified other masked men as Jaffal Al-Shammari — one of the Abqaiq assailants — and Abdullah Al-Shammari, who was killed in a shootout in Riyadh along with Tuweijri, and Ibrahim Al-Mutair, the man the television said was behind the camera.
— Additional input from agencies
