From the AP:
Al-Qaida’s leader in Saudi Arabia was killed Thursday during clashes with police in the western city of Medina, the Interior Ministry said.
Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi was among six al-Qaida militants reported killed during police raids on numerous locations in the holy city and the capital, Riyadh, security officials told The Associated Press.
Al-Aoofi, a Saudi in his late 30s, and another militant were killed during one of seven police raids in Medina, the Interior Ministry said.
Al-Aoofi was considered the top leader of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden’s network in this conservative Gulf country, which has been rocked by multiple terror attacks since 2003. He was believed to have been involved in the June 2004 kidnapping and beheading of American engineer Paul Johnson.
Gee. Where in Saudi Arabia will they ever find a replacement terrorist…?
Still, good news; Abdullah seems to be holding steady, and, since the 2003 al Qaeda attack in Riyadh, the Saudis have captured or killed 25 of the 26 terrorist leaders listed as wanted by their state security forces.
Is it enough? Of course not. For one thing, I’d like to see Wahhabism demonized rather than codified—or, at the very least, its propagation curtailed and its advocates marginalized. But beggars can’t be choosers, right?—and if a dead al Qaeda leader is the best we can hope for in between increasingly incoherent dispatches from a Crawford ditch, I certainly ain’t gonna complain about it.
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update: See also, Captain Ed.
BUSH’S NEOCON WAR FOR OIL JOO LOVING AGENDA KILLS YET ANOTHER WEE LITTLE BABY!!!
Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi
So *their* dangerous whack-a-doos have three nanmes as well, like John Wilkes Booth, John Wayne Gacy, and John Forbes Kerry.
Etc.
Cordially…
al-Oufi? Isn’t this like the 3rd time he’s been killed?
“in this conservative Gulf country”
Nothing like the background and context from the AP.
I wonder how they used to characterize Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Gorbachev’s Soviet Union, or Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua. Of course Castro’s Cuba is paradise, to the rest of you knuckle draggers!
How do we know this guy wasn’t killed because he was too liberal? I don’t trust Saudi Arabia any farther than I can throw Qatar.
SA Police: Bang!
Saleh Mohammed: al-Aoofi! I’ve been hit!
I like the way the AP refers to “dissident Osama bin Laden”, kind of like that “not so nice Mr Hitler”
saudi security. isn’t that outsourced to haliburton? aren’t they the same ones that do the crawford clambake every year when bushie and pickles go skinny dippin down at the swim hole?