JEDDAH, 25 September 2003 — Sultan Jibran Al-Qahtani, one of the three terror suspects killed in a Jizan shootout on Tuesday, was wanted by the FBI in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.
Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper quoted Sultan’s father, Jibran, as saying he had identified the body of his son, who was from the Asir region. Sultan was also known as Zubayr Al-Rimi.
“My son is dead and it is all over,” Jibran, who had earlier asked his son to surrender, told the Arabic daily.
The FBI issued a bulletin on Sept. 5 saying it was searching worldwide for Al-Rimi, another Saudi, a Moroccan and a Tunisian in connection with terror threats.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Al-Rimi as the chief deputy of Abu Bakr Al-Azdi, the former top Al-Qaeda man in Saudi Arabia who surrendered to Saudi authorities on June 26.
Al-Rimi’s name appears on a Saudi list of militants connected to the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh that killed 35 people including the nine attackers.
Al-Rimi’s father told Al-Riyadh he last saw his son two years ago and said he believed Al-Rimi adopted extremism while studying physical education in Abha. Instead of finishing his degree, Al-Rimi traveled to Afghanistan to fight, he said.
Tuesday’s police raid on a flat at King Fahd Hospital compound in Jizan was intended to capture militants planning a terror attack, according to an official statement.
The hours-long gunfight with suspects armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades ended Tuesday afternoon after Saudi security forces stormed the three-story building.
A reporter saw shot-up doors inside the building, blood on the floors and staircase as well as shards of glass and bullet cartridges. Tear gas fumes were still strong after more than 18 hours. “I was terrified,” said a worker at the housing complex.
Jizan Governor Prince Muhammad ibn Nasser said there were no Americans or Britons in the compound, which housed about 3,000 hospital staff including Saudis and expatriates. The May 12 suicide bombings targeted three residential compounds in Riyadh housing mostly Westerners.
Al-Watan Arabic daily cited unidentified sources as saying a hospital pharmacist and his wife, a doctor who also worked at the hospital, had allowed the suspects to use their apartment in the complex.
In addition to Sultan Al-Qahtani, Turki ibn Saeed Al-Thaqfan Al-Bishri was also killed in Tuesday’s gunbattle. According to press reports, Bishri had helped Sultan come to Jizan. Both were earlier living in a flat at the King Fahd district in the region.
The Kingdom has stepped up its campaign to crack down on militants since the May 12 bombings. More than 200 suspects have been arrested since then and more than a dozen killed in police raids.
“We have a big terrorism problem in our country and I don’t know how we’re going to solve it,” Hussein Ahmed, a 24-year-old taxi driver in Jizan, said.
Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, yesterday attended the funeral prayer for the police officer killed in the shootout and expressed his condolences to the officer’s family. He also visited the injured policemen at King Fahd Central Hospital in Jizan and commended their bravery.
