Friend and Ally Update. First the Saudis fill their minds with jihad, and then they send their security services after them if they pursue that jihad in a politically uncomfortable arena. “Saudi al-Qaeda members killed,” from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
TWO members of the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda have been killed in fighting in Iraq, militants linked to the extremist network claimed on an Internet website overnight.
“Abu Hassan al-Makki and Abu Nasser al-Chadi were being sought by the Saudi security services,” the website said, giving the two men’s war names. It also posted a video of the men before their alleged deaths.
If their identities are confirmed, this will be the first time that the site of the Mujaheddin Consultative Council, which specialises in issuing Al-Qaeda statements, has shown pictures of Saudians sought by the Riyadh government.
The Mujaheddin Consultative Council is a movement of Sunni militants operating under the aegis the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda, led by Jordan’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi….
In November 2005, the US army quoted a study carried out by the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region as saying around 3,000 foreign fighters had joined forces in Iraq with local militants.
Saudis made up 12 percent of these fighters, third in number behind Algerians — 20 percent — and Syrians — 18 percent, the study reportedly said.
On 22 April a man claiming to be a member of Al-Qaeda and to have escaped from a US jail in Bagram, Afghanistan, said on a video on the same website that Saudi Arabia would be the extremist network’s next target after Afghanistan and Iraq.