ABU DHABI, 24 December 2002 — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates arrested Abdel Rahim Al-Nashiri, suspected of being Al-Qaeda’s top operations manager in the Gulf, at the end of October as he prepared to blow up vital economic installations, the official WAM news agency said.
“UAE security authorities in late October arrested Abdel Rahim Al-Nashiri, nicknamed ‘prince of the sea’ and Al-Qaeda’s chief for naval operations and its operations chief in the Gulf, who was preparing to blow up several vital economic installations inside the country,” it said.
It was the first official confirmation that Nashiri was arrested in the UAE.
Quoting an official source, WAM said Nashiri had been handed over to the United States “as part of the ongoing cooperation between the two sides in the fight against international terrorism.”
His arrest and handover were kept under wraps “for security reasons” and in order not to jeopardize the investigation, the source said.
The unnamed UAE official described Nashiri as “one of the most dangerous” on a US list of 20 operatives of the Al-Qaeda terror network. (AFP)
