June 11, 2004
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Al-Qaida has released its version of its capture of a foreign housing compound in Saudi Arabia and execution of 22 people, confirming reports that attackers were singling out non-Muslims, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
The organization published an account of the two-day hostage crisis on an al-Qaida-aligned Internet site.
Its account differs significantly from that of the Saudi government. The 3,000-word account was published as an interview with the leader of al-Qaida's Jerusalem Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the attack outside Khobar.
Brigade leader Fawaz Bin Mohammed Al Nashmi said Islamic insurgents targeted several sites. He denied Saudi special security forces attacked his group, claiming they arrived hours after the insurgents fled Khobar.
Al Nashmi said the first target was the Khobar Petroleum Center, which houses the offices of international oil companies. The insurgents, wearing military uniforms, stormed the center, killed a guard and began searching for Western oil executives. The first victim, Al Nashmi said, was British oil executive Michael Hamilton.
"We were asking our brother Muslims, where are the Americans? And they showed us a building where companies have offices," Al Nashmi said.
"We did find an American. I shot him in the head that exploded. Then we found a South African and we shot him, too. In our search for unbelievers, we had to exchange fire with the security forces."
From the Petroleum Center the al-Qaida attackers drove to another compound, which Al Nashmi said they easily entered.
Once again, the gunmen rounded up people and separated Muslims from non-Muslims.
Al Nashmi justified his killing of Asian nationals, including Indians and Filipinos, saying those Asian countries have been targeting al-Qaida allies.
"Thank God, we cleaned our land from unbelievers," Al Nashmi said.
The third al-Qaida target was the Oasis Resort, a compound of homes, offices and recreation facilities. Nashmi said the insurgents ate lunch at the restaurant and then began executing non-Muslims.
"We went to the first floor and we found some unbelievers," Al Nashmi said. "We slaughtered them."
The al-Qaida cell had intended to carry out a suicide attack that would destroy everybody in the compound. But Al Nashmi said Saudi authorities allowed him and his colleagues to escape to the nearby city of Dammam.
"We didn't want to survive the attack," Al Nashmi said. "But God decided that our time is not up yet. We promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land."
Meanwhile, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia appealed to the international community to extradite Saudi nationals linked to al-Qaida attacks over the last year.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said Saudi authorities have linked two Saudi opposition figures based in London to the al-Qaida attack on the petrochemical and refinery complex in Yanbu in which six Western engineers were killed in May.
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