A suspected al Qaeda militant who claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a Saudi Arabian diplomat in Yemen has warned that his group will ‘prepare the knives’ unless their demands are met, an official Saudi spokesman said today.
Mishaal al-Shodoukhi, who was named on a list of fugitive al Qaeda militants by Saudi authorities in 2009, phoned the Saudi embassy in Yemen to demand a ransom and the release of militants in Saudi prisons, the spokesman said.
He also threatened more attacks including an embassy bombing and the assassination of a Saudi prince.
Abdallah al-Khalidi, the kingdom’s deputy consul in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, was kidnapped outside his residence there on March 28.’There are some people here who have been calling, ever since Khalidi was kidnapped, to prepare the knives (to kill him)… Now it is a consul kidnapped, tomorrow it will be an embassy bombing and after that a prince killed,’ Shodoukhi said, according to a transcript of his conversation with the embassy released by Saudi authorities.
‘The Saudi embassy in Yemen received phone calls by Shodoukhi … saying that he represents the ‘evil group’ and confirming that they have kidnapped the deputy consul in Aden,’ a security spokesman was quoted as state news agency SPA.
Yemen’s political turmoil has strengthened Islamist insurgents in the country, leading to their takeover of some cities in the south of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state. They are allied with a regional wing of al Qaeda that has sworn to bring down neighbouring Saudi Arabia’s ruling family.
NO CLAIM OF RESPONSIBILITY
The Saudi spokesman, Mansour al-Turki, confirmed to Reuters that the reference to the ‘evil group’ meant al Qaeda in Yemen.
‘They have demands which include handing over a number of the prisoners, who are members of their organisation, in Yemen,’ the statement on SPA said.
Websites associated with al Qaeda did not carry a claim of responsibility for the abduction.
The transcript quoted Shodoukhi as demanding a ransom but saying he did not know how much it would be as ‘it will be agreed upon later; I am just a messenger’.
The Interior Ministry said last year it was holding 5,696 people for ‘militant’ related cases, most of whom appeared before courts.
Separately, a Saudi official told Reuters the kingdom would treat ‘as ordinary citizens’ family members of Saudi-born former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden if they are repatriated.
Pakistan is expected to deport soon bin Laden’s widows and children to Saudi Arabia after their jail sentence for illegal residency ends, their lawyer said last week.
The three women and two children were detained by Pakistani security forces after a secret U.S. special forces raid killed bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May last year.
A string of security officials have been assassinated in recent months in south Yemen, where an Islamist group linked to al Qaeda has seized territory and claimed responsibility for attacks on Yemeni troops and a U.S. security team last month.
On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber killed four people including three soldiers and wounded four other people near the southern town of Lawdar, Yemen’s Defence Ministry said. The bomber blew himself up at the army checkpoint.
Al Qaeda-linked militant group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an emailed statement that it was carried out by two ‘martyrdom-seeking mujahideen (holy war fighters)
