'Al Qaeda chief in Saudi Arabia killed in clashes'
(AFP)
6 April 2005
6 April 2005
DUBAI - The suspected chief of the Al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia was among 14 wanted militants killed in three days of fierce clashes in the kingdom, the exiled Islamic opposition said on Wednesday. Saleh al-Oufi, a former police officer who was number four on Riyadh’s most-wanted list, took over as Al Qaeda commander in Saudi Arabia in June last year. “One of the dead, who had an amputated leg, was found in a wheelchair,” the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said in an Internet statement.
“According to information available to the security services, it is Saleh al-Oufi. But the body was burnt and it is not possible to be certain of his identity before a DNA analysis.”
Oufi, who had previously been reported dead, resurfaced recently in recordings attributed to him on an Islamist website voicing support for the network’s Iraqi branch and call for attacks on “crusader” targets in the region.
At least 14 militants, including a number of most-wanted Al Qaeda suspects, were killed in the fierce fighting with Saudi security forces in the north of the kingdom.
Several Saudi newspapers have reported that Oufi was among the dead.
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