Islamic militants who killed 22 people in a shooting spree in Saudi Arabia a week ago have posted a 3 000-word account of the operation on the internet.
The account gives astonishing details of the attack, describing how the killers hunted down their victims, then slept and prayed after decapitating Westerners. It also challenges the Saudi Arabian government’s version of events, claiming that pictures of Saudi troops storming a building from the air were stage-managed.
The attack, in the northern port city of al-Khobar, shook the Saudi regime and, by forcing up the price of oil, caused economic upset globally.
The statement takes the form of an interview with Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Nashmi, the leader of the ‘al-Quds [Jerusalem]’ Brigade of the Arabian Peninsula, which carried out the attack.
The first site targeted was the al-Khobar Petroleum Centre, which houses the offices of a number of international oil companies. The terrorists, wearing military-style clothing, arrived at the compound around 7am last Saturday. They shot their way in, killing at least one guard, then set about hunting down Westerners. Michael Hamilton, a 62-year-old British oil executive arriving for work, was one of the first to die. ‘We saw the car of the British director and we liquidated him,’ Nashmi says, before giving gory details of other executions.
‘We were asking our brother Muslims, where are the Americans, and they showed us a building where companies have offices. We did find an American,’ said Nashmi. ‘I shot him in the head [which] exploded. Then we found a South African and we shot him too. In our search for unbelievers, we had to exchange fire with the security forces.’
Throughout the account Nashmi claims assistance from other Muslims, but the survivors deny this.
The militants then drove to another complex, where light security made getting in ‘a walk in the park’. They combed offices, rounding up and interrogating people to establish their religion, even lecturing some on Islam.
Nashmi describes how they murdered a group of Roman Catholic oil workers from the Philippines, ‘for the sake of our brother Muslims [there]’. Several Filipino Muslim groups, some linked to al-Qaeda, have been fighting against the Christian-dominated government for decades.
Such international concerns feature frequently in the account. Nashmi also describes ‘finishing off’ a group of Indian engineers. ‘Thanks to God we cleaned our land from unbelievers,’ he says. New Delhi is seen as having brutally repressed Muslims in Kashmir. Nashmi also claims that he killed an Italian, after forcing him to speak with al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arabic satellite TV channel, and demand the withdrawal of Rome’s troops from Iraq.
The militants then moved into the heavily fortified Oasis Resort, which comprises 200 villas, a hotel, restaurants and spas. There, Nashmi says, they ‘went to the hotel, found a restaurant and had a good lunch and some rest’. Then, ‘we went to the first floor and we found some unbelievers. We slaughtered them’.
Nashmi denies taking hostages — Muslims were moved to the top floor of a building for their own safety, he says. He also denies killing a 10-year-old Egyptian boy, one of four Muslims who died, blaming the security forces. Witnesses say the boy died when the militants opened fire on a school bus.
Nashmi also claims the dawn raid by Saudi special forces was a ‘publicity stunt’. Pictures of the troops landing on the roof of a building where hostages were being held were broadcast around the world. But Nashmi says his group had left hours earlier.
Saudi Arabia has been hit by a series of violent attacks recently. Last month another compound full of oil workers was raided and an American killed and dragged through the streets. It is clear the militants are focusing on the country’s valuable and vulnerable oil infrastructure.
The militants say the Khobar attack was orchestrated by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, a well-known Saudi-born militant. In a separate statement, published alongside that of Nashmi, Muqrin praised the strike for raising the price of oil. ‘[The price of] oil reached $42 per barrel, the highest figure in history,’ Muqrin says. ‘This irks the malicious government that is committed to guaranteeing America’s prosperity and the continuation of the oil flow.’
Such claims echo Osama bin Laden’s charges that the house of Saud, which has ruled Saudi Arabia for more than 70 years, allows the West to deprive the local population of the Arabian peninsula’s resources.
Some militant leaders are concerned that the accidental deaths of Muslims might turn locals against them. Mustafa Alani, a security expert at London’s Royal United Services Institute, said this is already happening in Saudi Arabia. ‘Most of the intelligence that has allowed the authorities to kill or capture 21 of the 26 most wanted militants in the kingdom has come from ordinary people,’ he told The Observer . ‘Once the radicals were heroes to local communities, but not any more.’
Muqrin is the most wanted militant in Saudi Arabia. He is a veteran of the war in Bosnia and one of a hit squad that tried to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995. After two years in prison, he was extradited to Saudi Arabia.
According to Mohsen al-Awajy, a moderate Islamist who has tried to mediate between militants and the Saudi regime, ‘intolerable torture’ at al-Ruweis prison in Jeddah turned Muqrin into ‘an avenger [and] a killer’.
‘He is shallow, very simple-minded. He has no political brain,’ Awajy said. ‘This man is like a wounded tiger. He has already decided to die but he wants to kill as many people as possible.’
Amid unconfirmed reports of more violence in Jeddah on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority issued an edict urging citizens and residents to report suspected militants planning attacks.
No one expects men like Nashmi to pay any attention. In his account he says the group was sure that the high security at the compounds would result in their deaths. ‘We didn’t want to survive the attack, but God decided that our time is not up yet,’ he wrote. ‘We promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land.’ – Guardian Unlimited Â