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[sorry, couldn’t resist my own title]
More Middlemen
By Bill Roggio
Al Qaeda’s middle managers continue to take a beating. Two senior commanders, one in Saudi Arabia, and one in Turkey, have been removed from action. The dismantlement of al Qaeda’s middle managers - its most senior filed operatives with extensive knowledge, training and contacts in the jihadi world - is crucial to reducing al Qaeda’s abilities to carry out mass casualty attacks.
In Saudi Arabia, Salah Mohammed al-Aufi, the commander of the Saud branch of “the deviant group” - the Kingdom’s term for al Qaeda - has been killed in a gunfight after Saudi security forces launched multiple raids against suspected al Qaeda hideouts in Riyadh and Medina. One other “deviant” was killed, and ten others were arrested. al-Aufi follows a long line of Saudi commanders and leaders killed or captured since al Qaeda launched its war against the Saudi regime.
In Turkey, Luai Sakra, an al Qaeda operative of Syrian descent was detained “on suspicion of involvement in the November 2003 suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul, and Turkish police have said he was also hatching a plot to blow up Israeli cruise liners in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya.” Sakra also claims to have fought along side Zarqawi in Fallujah as well as provided material support to the 9-11 hijackers. While the connections to Zarqawi will no doubt raise the cries of invasion and occupation of Iraq inspired terrorism, his jihadi credentials begin prior to the Iraq war.
Continue reading “More Middlemen”
More Middlemen
By Bill Roggio
Al Qaeda’s middle managers continue to take a beating. Two senior commanders, one in Saudi Arabia, and one in Turkey, have been removed from action. The dismantlement of al Qaeda’s middle managers - its most senior filed operatives with extensive knowledge, training and contacts in the jihadi world - is crucial to reducing al Qaeda’s abilities to carry out mass casualty attacks.
In Saudi Arabia, Salah Mohammed al-Aufi, the commander of the Saud branch of “the deviant group” - the Kingdom’s term for al Qaeda - has been killed in a gunfight after Saudi security forces launched multiple raids against suspected al Qaeda hideouts in Riyadh and Medina. One other “deviant” was killed, and ten others were arrested. al-Aufi follows a long line of Saudi commanders and leaders killed or captured since al Qaeda launched its war against the Saudi regime.
In Turkey, Luai Sakra, an al Qaeda operative of Syrian descent was detained “on suspicion of involvement in the November 2003 suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul, and Turkish police have said he was also hatching a plot to blow up Israeli cruise liners in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya.” Sakra also claims to have fought along side Zarqawi in Fallujah as well as provided material support to the 9-11 hijackers. While the connections to Zarqawi will no doubt raise the cries of invasion and occupation of Iraq inspired terrorism, his jihadi credentials begin prior to the Iraq war.
Continue reading “More Middlemen”
