Al-Qaeda confirmed on Sunday the killing of its leader in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, and three other fighters but said that he had a successor and that its fight against both the Saudi regime and the United States would continue.
In a declaration published on Sunday on an Islamist website, the group said: "Fighting commander Abdul Aziz bin Issa al-Muqrin fell as a martyr on Friday..in an ambush laid for him by the troops of tyranny in the Malaz district of Riyadh," said the statement signed by "al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula".
The announcement also said that Muqrin had prepared for his succession at the head of the group.
The Saudi authorities stated on Saturday that they had killed Muqrin shortly after his group had decapitated a US national they had taken hostage in Riyadh.
"The soldiers suddenly opened fire on the combatants with light weapons, killing them. May God bless them," al Qaeda statement continued.
It added that Muqrin had died "after having prepared sincere men from among the combatants to succeed him and carry on the jihad, equipped by God with everything needed to bring harm to America and its agents among the tyrants.
"They have committed themselves to apply sharia (Islamic) law and to avenge the blood of Muslims and fighters," the statement went on to say.
It also said that the killing of Moqrin "will only strengthen the fighters in their determination on the path of jihad."
Al-Qaeda also said that sympathizers in the Saudi security forces supplied it with police uniforms and vehicles and set up fake checkpoints to facilitate last week's abduction of American Paul M. Johnson Jr.
The group said al Qaeda members wearing police uniforms and using police cars set up a fake checkpoint on al-Khadma Road, leading the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.
When Johnson's car approached the checkpoint June 12, they stopped his car, detained him, anesthetized him and carried him to another car. It said they then blew up Johnson's car.
"This car is the one the Saudi media claimed was laden with explosives and that (the security) seized and defused it," an article in the website said.
"A number of the cooperators who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to serve Islam and the mujahedeen," the article read.
It said the group decided to behead Johnson when Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, declared that Saudi Arabia would not negotiate with the kidnappers.
"The stupid Saudi government took the initiative and announced by the Americanized tongue Adel Al-Jubeir that it will not submit to the conditions of the mujahedeen, claiming that it doesn't negotiate with terrorists," the statement read.
The group said it beheaded Johnson when its deadline expired Friday. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
