U.S. believes Ghamdi is Al-Qaeda senior operative in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, June 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In what is seen as a major blow to Al-Qaeda schemes in the kingdom, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz announced Friday, June 27, the surrender of the man considered by Washington to be the network senior operative in Saudi Arabia.

Ali Abdul Rahman Said al-Ghamdi was also number two on the list of 19 people wanted by Saudi authorities in connection with Riyadh triple bombings that killed 35 people, including eight Americans, and was blamed on Al-Qaeda.

In statements published by Okaz newspaper Friday, Prince Nayef said Ghamdi "had surrendered himself to (assistant interior minister) Prince Mohammad bin Nayef in Jeddah."

He added that a total of 50 people had now been arrested since the bombing attacks.

Those detained include four women arrested in a raid on Makkah Al Mukkaramah on Friday amid initial indications that they played a role in the terror network, Prince Nayef said.

While all Saudi papers carried the factual account of Ghamdi's surrender as their lead story, none offered any comment.

They all published a photograph of a young-looking Ghamdi which showed him in traditional Saudi dress, without a beard.

Ghamdi was born in the southern Saudi province of Baha in 1974 and studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, according to biographies published by Saudi newspapers on Friday, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to Al-Riyadh daily, he was married to a Moroccan woman and had spent five years fighting in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Decoy

But the reported surrender of Ghamdi might be an attempt by Saudi authorities to deceive or lure his group colleagues to hand themselves over, Ali Ahmed, of the Washington-based Saudi Research Centre told al-Jazeera.

Ahmed said Riyadh tightened up on Ghamdi's friends and family members to force his surrender, adding that the alleged al-Qaeda suspect might have been offered guarantees in return for turning himself in.

Saudi authorities have asked militant suspects to surrender.

"All the wanted persons should surrender themselves. That is the only way because the security forces will reach them, and it is better for them to surrender themselves," Prince Nayef said.

Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, the highest religious authority in the kingdom, had warned Saudi citizens against harboring fugitive militants.

"We must never protect those who are behind an incident in the country, but denounce them," Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh told Al-Hayat.

Pleased

"All the wanted persons should surrender themselves. That is the only way because the security forces will reach them," said Prince Nayef

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that if the reports were true, Washington would be "very, very pleased that this terrorist has been brought to justice".

A U.S. official said Ghamdi's surrender was a significant setback to Al-Qaeda, taking out of action the network's senior operative in the kingdom.

"It's a serious blow to Al-Qaeda, being that he is one of the senior guys in the Riyadh office, shall we say," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"He is definitely the senior operative in the Saudi operation," the official said, adding that he was known to be plotting other attacks against U.S. targets in the kingdom and elsewhere.

This arrest will help Saudi Arabia to convince the Bush administration that every effort is being made, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

"This is a major arrest and a huge victory in the war against terrorism," Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. said in a statement.

The U.N. warned Thursday, June 27, that al-Qaeda still poses a "significant" threat to international security and that efforts to cut off the group's fund raising sources have met with mixed success.

A report written by a U.N. monitoring group set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, said global counter-terrorism efforts had made some headway in locating and detaining various al-Qaeda leaders and breaking up cells in a number of countries.