Saudi Arabia's double-edged
amnesty By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - With Saudi militants ignoring the
government's offer of a limited amnesty to those who
turn themselves in, a confrontation between the Saudi
security apparatus and the militants, far more violent
than the one witnessed over the past year in the
kingdom, is likely in the coming weeks. Saudi militants
fighting in Iraq and elsewhere appear to be returning
home in preparation for just such a confrontation.
The limited amnesty offered in the name of King
Fahd gave militants one month to surrender or face the
"full might" of the state. Under the amnesty, militants
who turn themselves in will face trial if they have been
involved in attacks, but they will not be awarded the
death penalty. Al-Qaeda responded with scorn, saying the
offer was a "desperate attempt to halt the jihad in the
Arabian Peninsula" and that it was doomed to
"inescapable failure".
Only four militants have
turned themselves in since June 23, and Saudi interior
minister Prince Nayef has ruled out any extension of the
July 23 deadline, claiming that Saudi rulers expect
"large numbers", or "all militants to return to their
senses and give themselves up".
At least two
"names" have been netted, though, the most prominent
being Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harby, said to be
a confidant of Osama bin Laden and described by former
Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal as a
"big fish". Saudi officials say that while Harby would
have information on safe houses and the whereabouts of
al-Qaeda leaders, he is unlikely to know much about the
organization's ongoing operations as he was not an
operations planner in al-Qaeda - he was bin Laden's
in-house cleric, a sounding board for the al-Qaeda
chief.
The other "name" is Othman Amri, who is
No 19 on Saudi Arabia's list of 26 most wanted
militants.
Saudi officials have said that the
amnesty was not directed at diehard al-Qaeda combatants,
such as those who have fought in Afghanistan or
Chechnya. It apparently was aimed at the greenhorns,
those who don't as yet have blood on their hands. That
the amnesty was able to draw in a few battle-hardened
fighters has come as a surprise.
The failure of
the amnesty to draw large numbers fits in neatly with
the Saudi government's strategy to tackle Islamist
militancy in the kingdom. The amnesty is really a
prelude to an intensified crackdown on militants
operating in the kingdom. The lack of response now
provides the government with the justification to launch
a no-holds-barred onslaught on them.
Since May
2003, militants with links to al-Qaeda have carried out
a series of violent attacks in Saudi Arabia. The
government is said to have taken about 600 people into
custody in an unprecedented crackdown on the militant
network in the country. While many of those detained are
fighters belonging to al-Qaeda, some are political
activists demanding democratic reform in the country.
Of the list of 26 wanted militants, at least 11
have either been killed or jailed. Last month, Saudi
police killed Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, the leader of
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and a few of his
associates. They were wanted in connection with the
beheading of Paul Johnson, an American engineer working
in Riyadh. Earlier, police eliminated al-Qaeda's chief
of operations in Saudi Arabia, Khaled Ali Ali Haj.
Although the government has killed several top
militants, so extensive is the al-Qaeda network in the
kingdom and so deep the disaffection with the House of
Saud that the crackdown might have eliminated only a
small fraction of the network. According to media
reports, Saudis who went to Iraq to fight the US
military occupation are returning home. Prominent among
the returnees is Saleh al-Oufi, the new al-Qaeda chief
in Saudi Arabia. Othman Amri is another Iraq returnee.
According to his family, he served in Iraq all of last
year. Since returning to Saudi Arabia, Oufi has been
calling on Saudi militants fighting outside the kingdom
to return to fight the infidels in the country, rather
than in Iraq.
The Saudi government has
consistently denied the role of Saudi militants in Iraq.
It was only last week that Prince Nayef admitted they
were in the country. "Surely, there are Saudis," he
said. "But the number, and how they entered Iraq, is not
available to us now." Dozens of Saudi militants have
been killed in the Iraqi insurgency, especially in
Fallujah. Many Saudi families are said to have journeyed
to Fallujah in recent months to bury their sons. Public
funerals have also been held in the kingdom for Saudi
men who died in fighting in Iraq.
Analysts are
drawing attention to the links between the Saudi and
Iraqi insurgencies. Tactics that militants have used in
Fallujah have surfaced in Saudi Arabia. These include
kidnapping, beheading of hostages, the dragging of
Westerners' bodies tied to the back of cars, and
killings aimed at weakening the oil sector. The bond
between the Saudi fighters and events in Fallujah was
underscored during the beheading of Johnson. The outfit
that claimed responsibility called itself the Fallujah
Brigade. It is said to be part of al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula. When militants dragged the body of
one of the six Westerners killed in an attack at a
petrochemical facility at Yanbu in May, they shouted,
"Come join your brothers in Fallujah" to a group of
children in a nearby school. Earlier this year, four
American contractors were killed in Fallujah in a
similar manner.
The similarities are not just
indicative of copycat killings, where tactics in one
battle zone are replicated elsewhere. It seems there is
cooperation and coordination in the fighting. The
movement of fighters between Iraq and Saudi Arabia
indicates this. Tactics adopted in Iraq are being
replicated because Saudi fighters who have returned home
after a stint in Iraq are carrying them out.
Several of the older generation of Saudi
militants - those who came of age fighting the Soviets
in Afghanistan - have been killed or captured. Analysts
say the younger fighters - those who have cut their
teeth in Iraq - are now taking the place of the older
mujahideen. While the latter are said to be far more
experienced and skilled as fighters, having survived a
long war in Afghanistan, the younger ones are more
motivated, more comfortable with technology, and
therefore more adept at using this to further their
cause.
For more than two decades now, Saudi
Arabia has exported terrorism to other countries,
financed terror groups and their operations outside the
kingdom. Now the chickens seem to be coming back to
roost. With the homecoming of the Iraq veterans likely
to increase in coming weeks and the Saudi government
stepping up the intensity of its operations against
militants after the expiry of the amnesty this Friday,
an increase in violent confrontations in the kingdom is
in the cards.
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