RIYADH, 8 June 2003 — Saudi Arabia announced yesterday the names of 12 suicide bombers who attacked three housing compounds here last month. Interior Minister Prince Naif said 10 suspects were still being sought.
An Interior Ministry official also disclosed the seizure on May 24 of 128.4 kg of highly explosive RDX in Al-Kharj, the site of a military base 80 km south of Riyadh.
Prince Naif announced yesterday that the number of suspects arrested in connection with the bombings in Riyadh stood at 25.
The Saudi Press Agency carried the names of the 12 identified bombers. Five of those named were Saudis on a wanted list issued before the May 12 attacks which killed 35 people. Al-Qaeda terror network has been blamed for the attacks in which armed assailants drove into the compounds and detonated car bombs.
“Through intensive investigations and DNA testing, 12 people have been identified from among those who committed the triple terrorist bombings on the housing compounds,” an Interior Ministry official told SPA. “Investigations are in progress to identify others,” he added.
The 12 bombers identified were: Khaled Muhammad Al-Johani, Muhammad Othman Al-Shehri, Hani Saeed Al-Ghamdi, Jibran Ali Khabarani, Khaled ibn Ibrahim Baghdadi, Mihmas ibn Muhammad Al-Dossary, Muhammad ibn Shadhaf Al-Shehri, Hazim Muhammad Kashmiri, Majed Abdullah Akeel, Bandar ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Motairy, Abdul Kareem Muhammad Yazji and Abdullah Faris Al-Motairy.
Prince Naif said 10 people on the list of 19 terror suspects, which police issued after raiding the headquarters of suspected militants just days before the Riyadh attacks, were still being sought.
“We cannot say yet whether they were all involved (in the bombings), but they share the same ideology,” Prince Naif told Okaz newspaper. “I believe it is Al-Qaeda and if there were other groups (involved in the blasts) then they were helping it,” the minister said.
A Saudi-owned newspaper has reported that a suspected Saudi militant who was shot dead by police last week was very close to Osama Bin Laden and was a key member of his network in the Gulf. Yousuf Al-Ayeeri, the Bin Laden associate, was killed in a shootout with Saudi police on May 31. Two Saudi security men were also killed and three others wounded in the clash. A second gunman was arrested.
Prince Naif also said yesterday there is a need to produce a strategic plan to counter extremist and stringent ideas that are alien to Saudi Arabia. “This responsibility lies upon religious authorities, educators, intellectuals and educated people. Security procedures alone cannot deter such things as radical thinking among some of our male and female teachers,” the prince added.
Prince Naif said religious scholars and educators should help steer “misguided” Saudi youth in the right direction. “We must combat these ideologies and uproot them because security measures alone are not enough,” he said.
The Saudi security authorities are still looking for Turki Al-Dandani and Ali Al-Ghamdi, No. 1 and No. 2 on the list of the 19 members of the terror cell. They are believed to be the masterminds behind the Riyadh attacks.
The minister said all indications suggest that Al-Qaeda leaders are still alive and giving orders. Iran, which reported the arrest of several Al-Qaeda suspects, has not extradited anyone to Saudi Arabia following the attacks, Prince Naif said, adding that he hoped Iran will cooperate with the Kingdom.
Prince Naif said he would discuss terrorism, arms smuggling and the current situation with his Yemeni counterpart, Rashad Al-Olaimi, who begins a two-day official visit to the Kingdom today.
Large quantities of arms and explosives are smuggled every year over the 1,800-km border between the two Arab neighbors. Hundreds of thousands of infiltrators also cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
Concerning the source of weapons and explosives used in the Riyadh bombings and whether or not they came from Yemen, Prince Naif said he would raise the issue during his talks with the Yemeni minister.
