Jun 19, 2002 6 min read

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi Arabia announced its first al-Qaida-related arrests since Sept. 11 and said Tuesday it was holding 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese man behind a plot to shoot down a U.S. military plane taking off from a Saudi air base. Meanwhile, U.S. officials announced another Saudi, described as an al-Qaida operative, was in custody in Morocco. They said Abu Zubair al-Haili helped evacuate al-Qaida members from Afghanistan after Sept. 11, officials said.

The arrests in Saudi Arabia were made public through the official Saudi Press Agency, which linked the suspects to Osama bin Laden’s terror network and said they were planning to use explosives and missiles in other attacks in the kingdom.

The agency provided only sketchy details on when or where the suspects were arrested. But it was the first time since the terrorist attacks on the United States – carried out by 15 Saudis and four other Arabs – that the U.S. ally has announced arrests linked to bin Laden, the Saudi exile whose first cause was the overthrow of this Muslim kingdom.

The alleged plotters “were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against vital and important installations in the kingdom, by using explosives and two (surface-to-air) SA-7 missiles, smuggled into the kingdom and hidden in different places around the country,” the agency said.

Among those in custody was a Sudanese man identified by U.S. officials as Abu Huzifa, a suspected al-Qaida cell leader who has acknowledged shooting an SA-7 missile at an American plane taking off from the Prince Sultan Air Base.

The base, south of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, is home to some 4,500 U.S. troops and several military aircraft. It is being used in the war on terrorism as a command and control facility although Saudi Arabia has apparently barred the United States from stationing fighter bombers on its territory.

Saudi Arabia first invited troops to the country during the 1991 Gulf War to help defend the oil-rich nation against Saddam Hussein’s forces.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher declined comment on the arrests except to say: “We’ve been very satisfied with Saudi cooperation in a wide variety of areas, whether its financial, law enforcement or other matters.”

But relations have been strained since Sept. 11, with criticism that the Saudis did too much to support Afghanistan when it was run by the Taliban and al-Qaida and too little to hunt down terrorists or inspire friendlier attitudes toward the West.

It took five months before the kingdom acknowledged that 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. It has not taken part in a worldwide asset freeze of accounts linked to bin Laden or changed laws – as other Gulf states have – to crack down on money transferring or Islamic banking practices that al-Qaida may be abusing.

At least 50 Saudis are among several hundred prisoners captured in Afghanistan and now in the hands of the U.S. military.

Saudi officials say they are committed to the fight against terrorism and have countered that they are being unfairly accused while their citizens are punished for the acts of a few. Western diplomats acknowledge that the aging rulers must walk a fine line between radicals at home and friends in the West in order to remain in power. The presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia – home to Islam’s holiest sites – is one of bin Laden’s stated reasons for his holy war on America.

The Saudi news agency said Tuesday that the Sudanese suspect in custody had apparently fled the kingdom with the help of five of Saudis and the Iraqi. The agency said the Sudanese man was directly connected with al-Qaida and had fought with the group in Afghanistan.

The Sudanese government said Sunday that it had transferred the man to Saudi Arabia after he admitted firing a missile at a plane at Prince Sultan Air Base. In May, Saudi security guards found a missile launcher tube about two miles from a runway at the desert base, south of the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

The Saudi report said the investigation into the 13 suspects was ongoing and findings would be made public.

“Then they will be transferred to the Islamic court and Islamic law will be implemented,” it said.

Separately, the Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement Tuesday saying that Saudi Arabia has asked Interpol to assist in the arrest of 750 people, including 214 Saudis, “many of which are suspected to be involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist-related activities.”

News of the latest Saudi arrests comes a week after Moroccan authorities said they had detained three Saudis who were planning to attack U.S. and British warships in the Straits of Gibraltar. On Tuesday, a Moroccan prosecutor said the men took orders from a top al-Qaida leader named Ahmed el-Mulla Billal.

The men also planned to carry out suicide attacks against tourist buses in the country and blow up a cafe in the southern city of Marrakech, state prosecutor Moulay Abdallah Belghiti said at a news conference in Casablanca.

There was no immediate word if accused al-Qaida operative al-Haili, also being held in Morocco, had any links to the three other Saudis in Morocco custody.

A man in Syrian custody has said he recruited Mohamed Atta, the lead suicide hijacker on Sept. 11, according to a German intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a German of Syrian descent, was in Hamburg, Germany, with Atta and other members of Atta’s cell, including hijackers Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. Several surviving members of the cell are still being sought by international authorities, the intelligence official said. He also is believed to have introduced Atta to al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan.

Zammar was detained in Morocco after leaving Germany last year. Morocco then transferred him to Syrian custody.

U.S. authorities appear to have some degree of access to Zammar – although it is unclear if it is through direct contact or an intermediary – despite the fact that Syria remains one of the countries the United States formally accuses of supporting terrorism.