JEDDAH, 18 December 2004 — Police arrested three men wanted in connection with terror links as they tried to enter Taif city, 80 kilometers to the east of Jeddah. The men riding two cars were nabbed at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.
A security source was quoted by Al-Jazirah newspaper as saying they arrested three “important figures” but the source declined to say whether the men figured in the Ministry of Interior’s list of the 26 most wanted terrorists. The three were spotted late Wednesday night trying to enter Taif. Police followed the cars and arrested the men at a checkpoint mounted at one of the city entrances.
The source said the arrests were part of the ongoing efforts by anti-terror forces to pursue and arrest terror suspects.
The source said the suspects surrendered without any resistance.
Security forces have been waging a nationwide search for suspected terrorists linked to a series of terror attacks that rocked the country in recent years.
Earlier this month, gunmen attacked the US Consulate in Jeddah killing five people. Four of the attackers were gunned down by security forces.
On Tuesday night seven jailed terror suspects made a televised appeal to extremists to surrender, denying reports of torture in Al-Hair prison where they are being detained. One of them on the list of 26 most wanted terrorists said his jailers were nicer than his parents.
The documentary from Al-Hair reform penitentiary, outside Riyadh, was another attempt by authorities to encourage wanted terrorists to surrender and to counter propaganda that those who give themselves up are mistreated in jail. “I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents,” said Othman Hadi Al-Maqboul Al-Amri, who surrendered on June 28 under a one-month amnesty offer in the summer.
