RIYADH, 24 November 2002 — There are no “sleeping cells” of the Al-Qaeda terror network in Saudi Arabia, Interior Minister Prince Naif said in remarks published yesterday.
“There are no Al-Qaeda sleeping cells and no Saudi was arrested in recent days for links to the network,” Prince Naif told Al-Watan daily newspaper.
He said a Saudi, Mohammed Al-Sahim, who was wounded and captured after a shootout with police on Nov. 16 was wanted for a “security-related matter” and was not linked to Al-Qaeda, according to preliminary investigations.
The minister also said authorities were still trying to track down a man who set fire to a McDonald’s restaurant southeast of Riyadh last Wednesday. The assailant was using “a car with non-Saudi number plates, which police have been able to identify,” Prince Naif said.
The man, armed with a pistol, walked into the restaurant in Al-Kharj and set it on fire with petrol.
For his part, the prince who owns the McDonald’s franchise in the Kingdom was meanwhile quoted as saying that he planned to reopen the gutted restaurant after repairing it and that he would open an additional 10 outlets by the end of 2003. Repairs are already under way, said Prince Mishaal ibn Khaled, quoted by Okaz newspaper.
Prince Mishaal said three of the 10 new restaurants he planned to open would be in Riyadh and the rest in other parts of the Kingdom, which already boasts 78 outlets of the fast-food chain.
He said turnover at McDonald’s restaurants had risen by four percent during the first 10 months of 2002 compared to the same period last year, despite calls for a boycott of US products.
