Interview met Saoudi terroristen (Khobar aanslagen)

[Pascal L.]

ABRIDGED ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF INTERVIEW WITH
LEADER OF KHOBAR AL-QAEDA CELL
Translated by Ali Al-Ahmed ([email protected])

NOTE: This interview was conducted a day after the Khobar raids on May 29, which left 22 people, mostly foreigners, dead. That was earlier than the official version of events was released by the Saudi authorities. Riyadh-based western diplomats confirm that almost all of the details correspond to what they have been told privately by Saudi officials and eye witnesses. However, the ending should be read with a great deal of caution: as I have noted elsewhere (see art_14.html), three of the four member of the Al-Qaeda cell were allowed to escape. The spokesman in this interview probably felt that, since he had emphasized that they were all willing to die as martyrs that day, he would have lost some credibility by admitting that he cut a deal to get away. Other interesting points include the constant emphasis on the fact that Muslim lives were spared, indicating that the backlash against Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia after the November 8 bombings in Riyadh, in which Muslims were among the victims, had had an effect on how the Khobar operation was planned and publicised. Also, Al-Jazeera did not air the interview it apparently conducted with the leader of the cell, nor the interview it conducted with the Italian who was apparently butchered afterwards. This suggests, as I have said elsewhere (see art_11.html), that US pressure on the network continues to get results in terms of it toning down its more inflammatory material.

-- John R. Bradley


STARTS

Regarding the battle or operation in Khobar, the decision was that it would be a martyrdom operation, that there was no way back, and the brothers and I asked God to keep in safety those who would be left and accept those who would be been killed.
They were in the frame of mind that they would fight until they died, and achieve the meaning of how to penetrate unprotected into the enemy, because the targets and those securing them were so powerful. In fact all of the area is like the settlements, it looks like you are in a Western state, with heavy arsenal, Hummer vehicles and checkpoints were every 200 meters between each, and you encounter weapons and armed soldiers.
Days ahead, the brothers met and put together the plan, and after Fajr (dawn) prayer the brothers prepared things in the final review. Our brother Abu Hajar assigned me to be in charge of the group. I wasn’t up for it but I considered it to be a test from God. I met with the brothers and explained the targets, the plan, and showed them where the targets were, and for a second time we explored and memorized the way to the targets.
The day of the operation, we finalized the allocation of roles. I was the driver and our brother Nemer Albogomi (who was killed) was next to me and our brother Hussain behind me and our fourth brother Nader behind Nemer. The car was a Maxima.
On the night of the operation I parked the car and put the explosives in it, because the third site was the most heavily secured compound in all the Eastern Province, which was only 500m away from the palace of Prince Mohammad bin Fahd [the eastern province governor]. It's well known that it's one of the biggest dens of prostitution and debauchery, a huge place full of villas and the compound called "Alsanea Compound". The truth is that, behind the scenes, it belongs to Mohammad bin Fahd.
Our plan said that after we were through with the first two sites [the two Oil Companies] we would proceed to the residential compound, when the emergency forces would have gathered, and the decision was made to drive into them and explode the car in order to open a path for other brothers.
During my lifetime, I have never seen anything like these compounds. They are located in the golden belt area, a wealthy district full of palaces. The governor of the Eastern Province lives there. We were able to see the marines walk out of it. The compound is approximately 3km square and has a number of gates. It’s a huge area.
The first company [we attacked] was the Arabian Petroleum Investments Co., a subsidiary of the American Halliburton Co. It has a role in Iraq, and the truth is that it is one of the largest international companies.
We went out of our house at 05:45. Near the site we changed our clothes, and we took up our weapons. We asked for God's help to facilitate our mission.
The company has two gates, and we went to the first one. Our brother Nemer and all the others got out of the car, and they asked the guard to open the gate. There was someone behind the gate and the fence - two of the security personnel were outside and one was inside. One who came towards the gate was told by the brothers to open it, but he refused. When the brothers decided
to break in, he hide behind the counter.
We were in a hurry to get through with this company so we could continue to the other company, so we went to the other gate and we broke in and we dealt with it's guards. As soon as we entered the area we spotted a Briton [the company’s investment manager], whom God had sent to his end. His mobile was shown on TV, on the front seat covered with blood. We left him in the street.
We tied one leg of the infidel to the back of the car and drove out to face the police. The first car that drove towards us was a police patrol jeep, and we killed the driver and got into a fight with the others until we finally drove threw them all. Thank God we memorized more than just one route to the other site, because when the police closed the first road there were no way back through it. Instead we went through another road [the coastal Khobar–Dammam highway) for about 4km. The clothes of the infidel we were dragging were ripped off and he became naked. The street was full of people – it was then normal working hours – and everyone saw us dragging the infidel. When we reached one of the bridges, we faced an ambush from the idol's dogs and the American guards and clashed with them.
While we made our way to the middle of the bridge, the rope we tied the infidel with snapped, so [he] fell down the bridge and landed in between the four traffic lights below. Everyone there saw how this happened. When the brothers clashed with the police patrols they said “God is Great - There is No God but God”, and because of God’s help we got through the ambush.
We resumed our mission, which was to head for the other company, it's oil center (the same kind of company compound). We arrived at the gate and there was a wonderful calmness and we thanked God for it. But when we got out of the car the brothers were walking as though they had started to panic.
We entered and came face to face with young Arab men wearing Aramco uniforms.
They were walking about, and asked us what was going on, and what had happened. We told them to stay calm and not to be afraid, because we didn’t want them, we wanted the Americans. All four of us entered together, and we met the Arabs employees, greeting all of them and asking them where the Americans were. All the employees and the others in the reception area extremely curious, asking: What’s your problem and who are you?
We are the Mujahedeen and we want the Americans, we said to them, adding that we didn't come there to point our weapons at Muslims, but rather to rid the Arabian Peninsula of the unbelievers and polytheists who are killing our brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq, in accordance with the teachings of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him), and so we want you to guide us to them.We went up stairs. The building was home to several companies, and there was several doors, and every time we opened a door we found a big hallway containing many offices. The main office had a glass front. We entered one of the companies and found an infidel who seemed to be a director of one of the companies. I called him. When he looked at me, I shot him with a bullet that made his brain explode, then went into another office where we found a South African infidel, who Hussein killed with his knife. We went down again and at the gate we found our brother the hero Nemer guarding us. He was drinking a water as though he were enjoying a picnic, because he was too brave, mercy on his soul. We went out and got back into the car, and found forces rushing to defend the Americans. Some of them seemed to be from the marines.
We clashed with them and that was the third time, and they were wonderfully revealed as cowards, because they were too far from us - we were heading towards them and they were retreating. So we made it to the third site – the most secured one. The plan was to keep in the car until we were next to the American's Hummer vehicle. As soon as we were close to it, all the started saying God is Great and began shooting at them. I saw the soldiers standing behind the machine gun, saw his insides exploding, thanks to God, and I think that the driver was killed.
The plan was to enter through the way out, and when we entered and I went forward with the intention of exploding the car while the brothers kept up the attack. Next to some of the gates God brought our way one of the security guards (we saw him in the street) and we ordered him to open the gate. So we had no need to explode the car, and we drove through the main street inside the compound - the compound is so big, many kilometers big, and there are many smaller compounds inside! - and then we went to one of the buildings. Brother Nemer, mercy on his soul, pushed the door until it is opened, and we entered and encountered many people.
We asked them about their religion and looked at their IDs, and took the chance to promote Islam and tell them about our target. We talked with a lot of them, and during this time we spotted a Swedish infidel, and brother Nemer cut off his head and place it on the gate so everyone could see it. We continued looking for the infidels and when we found one of them we would kill him.
During this time we could hear the siren of the police patrols and the noise of the people gathering outside. But the cowards were not brave enough to clash with us. 45 minutes or one hour since the operation started, we started combing the place looking for infidels. We found Filipino Christians, and killed them and dedicated their death to our brothers the Mujahedeen in the Philippines, and we found Hindu engineers and we killed them too, thanks to God. So we rid the land of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) of a lot of Christians and polytheists that day.After that we went towards the hotel. We entered it and found a restaurant, where we ate breakfast and rested for a while. Then went up to the first floor and found some Hindu dogs, and we killed them, and I said to the brothers: put the bodies on the stairs, so when the solders of the idolaters attempt to attack us, they will see the bodies and be terrified by the sight. It seems that I had been too optimistic, because not one of the cowards entered the building until we left.
We take the chance to initiate a Qu’ran reading circle for the remaining Muslims, and we taught them how to read the Fatiha [the opening verse] perfectly. And they seemed to be overwhelmed by us. They were saying, how did you manage to pull this off in the current volatile situation, and thanked God that we were able to do so. The Muslim Indians informed us that their manager was a malicious Hindu who does not let them perform their prayers, and that he would be coming in a while. When he came, we confirmed his religion from his ID papers, then left him sit with us for a while.
I called Aljazeera TV, and they made an interview with us, but they did not transmit it. I informed them that I was talking to them from inside the compound, and we were targeting the unbelievers only. I went to one of the rooms to watch the TV news, and I saw that our operation was being covered by some of the stations. About 5 hours since the operation had begun, the latest news was that the emergency forces had started to attack the compound!
I assigned each of the brothers in a certain place at the hotel, to be ready to face any attack against us by the government dogs. At 2pm they attacked with an officer. We had a good view of them from where we were, and threw grenades at them. The officer was killed and the soldiers were wounded, thanks to God. They were yelling at their brothers in the rear line, saying: "We want to get out!" and "Yalla get us out! ... get us out!" and we were saying "God is Great".
Nemer, mercy on his soul, was shouting at someone, saying: “Come closer coward, come closer… and the others were running away from him. They started heavy shooting against the hotel and kept it up until the Asr (after 1500th prayer), during which time we killed this bad Hindu Indian, who did not allow the Muslim employees to perform their prayers. We took all the Muslims to the higher floors to protect them from the random fire of the emergency forces. We stayed down there waiting for those cowards, and during this time brother Hussein was on the staircase and when he saw the Italian infidel he pointed his weapon at him and told him to come closer. The infidel came closer, and we looked at his ID card. We decided that he should call Aljazeera TV, to send a massage to his people to warn them against fighting the Islam and it's people, and then we would kill him and dedicate his death to the Italians fighting our brothers in Iraq and to the foolish Italian president, who is seeking a confrontation with the lions of Islam.
We called Aljazeera TV, and I told the news presenter to talk to him, and they started talking. But the news presenter asked me if the Italian speaks English, and I said to him, don’t you have any Italian translators?. He said yes, and I said: then let him speak in his own language! He talked for a few minutes, and I asked the news presenter, did you record it? He said yes, and then the Italian was killed by the hero Nemer.
During this time, we were cautious, and one of the brothers suggested that we had to attack the cowards now, that time was running out, so we all agreed to do this and asked God to help us make the right decision.
After the sunset prayer, we asked God again, and after final prayer we asked God for the third time for help. At that time, we were feeling a kind of wonderful sleepiness, and it was most wonderful, since from the morning we were feeling sleepy, and we remembered God's saying about such a situation.
After Esha prayer, we went out after 9pm, exploring the situation so we could move out, and we went out from the last place the enemy expected, God diverting their eyes away from us. We climbed one of the man-made water falls… The distance from where we were to the ground was too high, 13 meters, and big trees all around this waterfall and cement barriers surrounding the compound…Brother Hussein, after fixing the kalashnikov on his back and tightening his
belt, and after throwing the ammunition bag down, said "In the name of God” and jumped. When he reached on the floor one of the brothers thought that he had died, but because of God's kindness the floor was wet due to the waterfall, and Hussein was not even injured. We could not believe our eyes. We called down to him and he answered saying that he was safe and healthy. That’s how we came to understand that God was protecting us. After that brother Nader jumped, I followed, and then it was the turn of brother Nemer, mercy on his soul. [Nemer was captured].

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