JEDDAH, 16 April 2007 — A high-ranking police officer, whose decapitated body was found buried on Saturday afternoon at his rest house in Al-Qusaiah, was identified as Col. Nasser Al-Othmani from Al-Qasim police, sources said.
The officer’s head was found severed from the rest of his body. Terror analysts say the murder resembles that of Lt. Col. Mubarak Al-Sawat, who was killed by terrorists in June 2005. It is thought that Al-Othmani has been targeted in similar circumstances.
However, Interior Ministry officials have not yet confirmed the dead officer’s identity. Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told Arab News that investigations were still continuing to ascertain a motive and the people behind the crime.
Al-Othmani was last seen going to his rest house located in Al-Qusaiah, west of Buraidah. When he failed to return home, his family became anxious and discovered his body buried at the rest house the following day. Sources say that the officer’s severed head was placed on top of his body.
A guard at the rest house is currently in police custody undergoing questioning.
Terrorists murdered Lt. Col. Al-Sawat, a senior security officer in Makkah, just outside his home on the morning of June 18, 2005. Police managed to trace Al-Sawat’s killers within a couple of days. The suspects died in a shootout in a hilly residential area located in the far southeast of Jeddah following a high-speed car chase on the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway. Three policemen were also injured in the shootout.
The Ministry of Interior identified the two terrorists as Kamal Sami Ahmed Foudah and Mansour Mustafa Al-Thubaity.
The ministry said the two were members of the “deviant group.” The Al-Qaeda network has been responsible for a wave of attacks in the Kingdom over the past four years.
