Saudi killers 'belonged to London group'

The mastermind of a deadly rampage that killed five belonged to a Saudi opposition group in London, according to officials in the Saudi industrial town of Yanbu today.

Mustafa Abdel-Qader Abed al-Ansari, a Saudi citizen wanted by security forces, was behind Saturday’s attack on the offices of oil contractor ABB Lummus Global, the official Saudi Press Agency reported today.

A founder of the group, who described al-Ansari as “simple-minded,” said he had joined briefly several years ago, but had not been seen since 1996.

Michael Hardy, 44, from Kent, and Michael McGillen, 52, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, were among five Westerners who died when four gunmen opened fire on the offices of ABB.

Two Americans, two Britons and an Australian were killed, and dozens were wounded in the attack and police chase through the city.

The attack, in which the body of one of the Americans was dragged behind the assailants’ vehicle, prompted many westerners to leave the kingdom.

Under the watch of guards armed with automatic weapons, about 20 American ABB Lummus employees gathered at Yanbu’s Holiday Inn today to be shuttled to the airport.

They refused to speak to reporters and details of their evacuation were not divulged, apparently for security reasons.

The other Saudis identified as assailants by the Interior Ministry in the SPA report were Samir Suleiman al-Ansari, his brother Sammy Suleiman al-Ansari, and Ayman Abdel-Qader al-Ansari, the brother of Mustafa. All were killed in the chase.

Saudi officials have blamed varying interests for the attacks, with Interior Minister Prince Nayef saying early today in Kuwait that the al-Qaida terror network was probably behind it.

His ministry’s statement linked it to Saudi exiles in London. The Saudi Cabinet blamed only “external forces” interested in spreading chaos.

According to the Interior Ministry, Mustafa al-Ansari was a member of a well-known Saudi opposition group, the London-based Committee for the Defence of the Legitimate Rights in the kingdom, which advocates overthrowing the monarchy.

“He re-entered the country in an illegitimate way and infiltrated the borders to carry out despicable plans,” the ministry statement said.

Saad al-Faqih, a founder of the opposition group, said Mustafa al-Ansari had briefly joined the organisation at one time, but left it when the leadership split in 1996. He did not say how long al-Ansari was with the group.

“I remember the name. He was in the committee before the split,” al-Faqih said in Cairo. “Since then I haven’t heard about him.”

“I remember him as a very simple-minded person with little education,” he said.

Al-Faqih split with Mohammed al-Misaari, another Saudi dissident who is still an Islamic activist in London.

Muslim activists in London said that Scotland Yard had been pursuing Mustafa al-Ansari for years and that its agents had questioned many Muslim activists in the UK about him.

The Saudi Press Agency also quoted an official government statement as saying “the Saudi cabinet believes that an external force stands behind this deviated group and supports it with money and weapons”.

In Yanbu, armoured vehicles and police jeeps sat outside the Holiday Inn hotel, where five vans escorted by Saudi police cars took dozens of ABB Lummus employees to the airport.

The company has said all 90 of its foreign employees in Yanbu were leaving. The first – all Europeans – left last night.

Many of the ABB Lummus employees leaving today had been among the Americans in Yanbu who attended a closed meeting with the US ambassador the day before. Ambassador James Oberwetter later told reporters that he had encouraged Americans to leave the country.

Last month, the United States ordered the departure of nonessential US government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia and also urged private citizens to depart.

The embassy had warned them of “credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia.”