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Southeast Asia
Bus booming suspect nabbed in Maguindanao
2016-05-28
[Inquirer] Philippine security forces arrested Thursday morning in Maguindanao a suspect in the 2008 Digos City bus bombing that killed six people and injured 30 others. Also arrested during the dawn raid was the village chair of Penfarm, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.

Senior Inspector Allan Uy identified the bombing suspect as Kamad Makauyag, a member of the Al-Khobar extortion group. Also arrested was Mahal Matalam, chair of Barangay Penfarm, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, where Makauyag had been hiding since the bus bombing. Uy said, "Matalam was arrested for possession of unlicensed firearms."

The Al-Khobar group, composed of former Moro militants turned bandits, was blamed for a series of bus bombings in North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Davao del Sur after the transport company ignored the group's extortion demands.

The April 2008 bombing killed six passengers and wounded 30 others after the suspects set off a powerful improvised explosive device with cut nails used as shrapnel.

Makauyag was the third suspect arrested in connection with the bombing. In 2011, police nabbeded Nor Muhammid at his home in Barangay Nuangan. A certain Tahir Sindai was arrested by a police special unit in May 2014 also for his alleged involvement in the Digos bombing.
Then there was that other leader arrested in November 2013.
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Arabia
11 Houthis die in attack near Al-Khbar
2016-03-03
Saudi joint forces killed 11 Houthi rebels and ousted Saleh militias when they foiled an attack off Al-Malhamah Mountain and northern Al-Khobar.

Saudi joint forces were able to deal with the attack through direct and indirect fire, involving special forces, and managed to seize a variety of shells, ammunition and medical supplies that were hidden in a cave used by the militias for storage.

Last Update: Wednesday, 2 March 2016 KSA 20:39 - GMT 17:39
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Southeast Asia
Two soldiers killed by Abu Sayyaf bombs
2015-06-24
[Inquirer] Two Philippine soldiers were killed and three others were injured in separate roadside bomb attacks believed to be launched by the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan on Tuesday.

Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc said an improvised explosive device was detonated as soldiers were on patrol in Sumisip town at about 8:30 a.m. Two soldiers were killed and one was injured in that incident.

In Ungkaya Pukan town, a bomb injured an infantryman at about 10a.m. A gun battle that broke out between soldiers and several militants left another soldier wounded.

Cabunoc could not say if the attacks were related to the arrest of one Abu Sayyaf member early in the day.

Abu Sayyaf militant Abdullah, alias Al Khobar, was arrested by security forces in Lantawan at around 1 a.m.
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Southeast Asia
Al Khobar terror leader arrested in Mindanao
2013-11-08
A leader of a notorious terrorist group believed to be responsible for several bomb attacks in Central Mindanao since 2006 that killed 31 people and injured more than a hundred others, has been arrested in Sultan Kudarat.

Police Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac said the suspect Jabide Abdul, alias Zabide/Beds, was arrested on Tuesday. Abdul, supposedly a senior leader of the Al-Khobar Group, was subject of several warrants of arrest on numerous charges.

Chief Superintendent Abelardo Villacorta said Al Khobar is a group of extortionists believed to be responsible for a series of bombings in the central Mindanao region since 2006. He said, “The group was allegedly created in support of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) and Foreign Militant Jihadists (FMJ) groups. It was intended to serve as a special unit concentrating on explosive component use and extortion schemes across Cotabato areas,” adding that the group first turned into a kidnap-for-ransom group before it became an extortion group.

Al Khobar is known to target businesses and local governments in central Mindanao, Villacorta said, noting that it has been blamed for the series of bomb attacks on bus companies and commercial establishments in the region from 2007 to 2009. He said, “A member of the group usually calls the target before the attack and demands ‘protection money’ to prevent such planned attack on their business. If the money is not paid, an attack is carried out."
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Southeast Asia
Bomb attack in Mindanao foiled
2013-01-05
Philippine security forces foiled a bomb attack in Mindanao which was blamed on a breakaway Moro rebel group.

Colonel Prudencio Asto, the regional military spokesman, said soldiers recovered and defused two powerful improvised bombs planted in front of the main gate to the town hall of Sharif Aguak in Maguindanao province. He said the bombs were made from two 81-millimeter mortar shells attached to each of which were mobile phones to act as triggering devices.

Asto said, “We suspect the targets were our troops conducting foot patrol in the area,” adding the home-made bombs may have been planted by members of the breakaway rebel group known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM).

However, he said another possibility being investigated is the alleged involvement of a notorious criminal syndicate known as Al Khobar believed responsible for a series of extortion and kidnap-for-ransom cases in Mindanao.
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Arabia
Al-Hayari: The Man and the Myth
2005-07-05
Moroccan Younes Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Hayari, the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia who was killed yesterday in clashes with Saudi Security forces in Riyadh, remains an enigmatic and controversial figure. According to a Saudi security source who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity said that, "the controversy concerning the real nationality of Al Hayari is irrelevant. What we know for sure is that he was a Moroccan national who entered Saudi with a Bosnian passport, the number of which we know. Moroccan security forces knew him well and we had exchanged information about him in the past."
So there's no real controversy, and even if there was, it'll recede as he decomposes...
Regarding Al-Hayari's ranking in al-Qaeda the source said, "Not only was he a high ranking member, but he was also involved in the planning of operations outside of Saudi Arabia. He also saw himself in the same rank as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Abu Anas Al Shamy." The source added that Al Hayari and Al Shamy (who was killed last September in Baghdad by American forces while leading a group of Al Zarqawi's men) were close friends, and that Al Hayari was involved in organizing terrorist activities inside Saudi Arabia as well as linking it to the international Al-Qaeda network.

When asked to describe the differences between Al-Hayari and his predecessor Abdul Aziz Al Muqrin, the security official said "Al Muqrin was a professional fighter, but he was a not a planner or a real leader. Al Hayari on the other hand, was a strategist who planned the hostage operation in Al-Khobar in May 2004. Al Hayari planned that operation after carrying out months of surveillance of the area. In fact, his newborn daughter was born in Sa'ad hospital in Khobar but was registered under the name of another man who is currently in prison." Al Hayari's military ability was displayed on 20 July 2004, when he successfully helped his Al-Qaeda brethren escape the failed operation that took place in the King Fahd district of Riyadh. "During that operation, two members of Al Qaeda's religious committee Eissa Al Awshan and Mejab Al Dausry were killed and this forced Al Hayari to take an active military role, rather than working behind the scenes," the source added.

The source also stated that Al Hayari possessed what he would describe as "chameleon like qualities" and was able to integrate into Saudi society very effectively. "He was a master of disguise, as you can tell by his wanted photo and he was able to mimic the Saudi persona very well. He also spoke in classical Arabic and not in his traditional Moroccan dialect, which made him sound like an Arabic schoolteacher. It seems that he was shocked by his picture appearing on the 36 most-wanted list, and by the fact that he was spotted in east Riyadh". According to the source, Al Hayari was spotted in East Riyadh a while back with fellow terrorist Abdulaziz Al Toweili or "the brother of whoever obeys God" as he was known on fundamentalist web sites. Al Toweili was involved in Al-Qaeda's media activities as he was the editor of 'Jihad Voice', the online journal that is considered the mouthpiece of the Saudi Al Qaeda. He was arrested on May 10, 2005.

With regards to whom security officials consider as the most important suspect on the 36 most wanted list after Al Hayari, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat that "Fahd is the second most important in our opinion", referring to 35-year old Fahd Faraj Mohammed Al-Juwari.
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Arabia
Sectarian lists circulate for second round of Saudi polls
2005-03-03
Election tickets drawn along sectarian lines are being circulated in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province as men there prepare to vote Thursday in the second round of landmark municipal elections. The oil-rich region is home to most of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, estimated at more than 10 percent of the predominantly Sunni population, and that adds a different dimension to Thursday's stage of the electoral process. "Do not be lazy ... Vote for the religious and moral," says a ticket for seven Sunni candidates endorsed by a number of local Sunni clerics, and being distributed in the city of Dammam. "Do not give the opportunity to (your) enemies, who are full of spite against your religion and homeland, those who spread depravation," says the pamphlet, in an apparent reference to Shiites.

Election lists are banned in the country's first-ever municipal polls. Shiites, nevertheless, also have their own six-member ticket, which is reportedly accepted by the majority of their community in Dammam, estimated at over 20 percent of its voters. Some 200,000 registered voters in the region, which stretches from the northern borders with Kuwait to the vast Empty Quarter in the south, will elect members to fill half the councils across the province, where some 692 candidates are running for 58 seats. Around 47,000 voters have registered in the mainly Shiite Al-Qatif region to elect five members to the council, while over 41,000 signed up to cast their vote in the Dammam constituency. Seven seats in the 14-member council of Dammam, which also includes the towns of Al-Khobar and Al-Dhahran, are to be filled through Thursday's ballot. Around 61,000 voters also registered in the town of Al-Ahsa, whose population is believed to be divided equally between Shiites and Sunnis. The percentage of registered voters out of the total number of eligible voters has not been disclosed.

"Shiites are naturally participating in the election, being citizens and part of this society," said leading Shiite cleric Hassan al-Nimer, claiming his community preferred not to be sectarian in dealing with the new step toward democracy. "We made desperate attempts to build bridges (with Sunnis) but, only yesterday, a (Sunni) cleric lecturing in a campaign center cursed the Shiites publicly," Nimer said.
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Arabia
3G Phones in Saudi - Immoral Use Will Be Punished
2005-01-02
Misuse of 3G Mobiles to Invite Punishment
Saudi Arabia will punish anyone using third generation (3G) mobile phones for purposes deemed immoral, the state telecommunications regulator said yesterday. The warning from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) came as it officially handed over the Kingdom's first 3G license to mobile phone operator Ettihad Etisalat.

3G mobile phones can access the Internet, which is strictly controlled in Saudi Arabia, and receive high quality video clips from adult sites. "We expect (3G) providers to follow the same rules as Internet providers," said CITC Information Technology General Manager Ahmed Sindi. "The challenge is that this technology is commensurate with our moral values. There will be laws and procedures that govern the use of the technology and people will be punished for its misuse."

A ban was recently overturned on the import and sale of mobile camera phones. Fights have been triggered at weddings and girls' schools after camera phones were used to take and distribute pictures of unveiled women, newspapers have reported.

Ettihad Etisalat, Saudi Arabia's second mobile phone operator, paid around SR750 million ($200 million) for the 3G license. The firm distanced itself from what material the technology could be used to view. "We will be the facilitator but never a pipeline," said Managing Director Khalid Al-Kaf. Kaf said he expected strong demand for 3G services when they are introduced by 2006.

The Kingdom imports around six million mobile phones a year, with 70 percent of consumers regularly changing their mobiles.
...
In Saudi, everyone has a mobile. It is probably the equivalent of the American teenager's first car or motorcycle. Coming of age. In Al Khobar's Al Rashid Mall there is a 3-story atrium. The girls go up to the 2nd and 3rd floors and drop folded pieces of paper with their phone numbers to the boys on the ground floor. Since they're all MBOs (Moving Black Objects), it's hard to know how a boy knows which bit of paper he wants to collect. Of course, there are watchers - to warn when the mutawas (Allah's Cops) show up. Now, with video capabilities, things should get very interesting in this uniquely Muslim game... If you'll show me yours...
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Arabia
JEDDAH SHOOTING DENIED
2004-06-06
MINISTRY of Interior officials are denying reports that suspected extremists exchanged gunfire early Saturday with police.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Conflicting reports emerged that suspected terrorists exchanged shots with police at about 3 a.m. on Tahlia Road near the Lotus Compound. Vehicles involved were identified as a white Toyota pickup truck and a 2002 light blue Mercedes Benz. Another report placed the shootings near the Al-Nada Village at Corniche Road. But Dr. Saud Al-Musaibeeh, the head of the public relations at the Ministry of Interior, denied that incidents occurred, but declined to provide any details of what happened in those areas. However, at one point a chase ensued over a lengthy period of time and at least two gunmen were being sought. The alleged shooting follows a May 29 attack by Al-Qaeda-backed terrorists at the Oasis Compound in Al-Khobar that left 22 people mostly foreigners dead.
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Arabia
EMBASSY CAUTIONS FILIPINOS ON QAEDA THREAT MESSAGES
2004-06-06
BULLSHIT! The Saudis will love to say that the people massacred in Khobar was due to resentment about the US war in Iraq. I cannot wait to see how they will use that excuse to explain the deaths of Hindus, Sri Lankans, a Swiss, etc.
By Edgar C. Cadano
The Saudi Gazette
THE Philippine Embassy issued a security advisory to all Filipinos in the Kingdom after it received anonymous threats identifying Filipinos as next terrorist targets aside from Westerners. The threat is believed to have come from terrorist groups after reports spread through the Internet alleging that the Filipinos are included among Al-Qaeda targets, along with the Americans and the British, because of the Philippine government s open support to the US war on terror.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government would not soften its anti-terrorism stance amid reports the Philippines is number three in the Qaeda hit list. Arroyo said backtracking is not the correct response to such reports but continued vigilance. The Philippine government is taking all steps to protect its citizens, she said. The Philippine Embassy said it has referred the letter of threat to the Saudi diplomatic police.

Vice Consul Adrian Cruz said the threat was received before the Khobar attacks that killed 22 people, including three Filipinos. According to the advisory, the messages are detrimental and damaging to the general standing of Filipinos and the cordial ties between them and their employers. Among other reasons for the threats, the messages cited current directions of Philippine foreign policy in the region. The embassy calls on all Filipinos in the Kingdom to stay calm and take all necessary precautionary measures under the guidelines and in cooperation with the host government and the Philippine authorities. The advisory added that the embassy is confident about the continuing support and protection by Saudi authorities to ensure the welfare and security of its expatriate workforce.

Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla and other embassy officials met with Filipino community leaders and informed them the embassy has received threats from an anonymous source aside from the warning posted on the Internet. The email is based on information relayed by Saudis listening to a radio program run by a Saudi opposition group. The radio broadcast from London is reportedly used by terrorists to relay their statements a day after the Al-Khobar terrorist attacks. Filipinos are being included in their target (Westerners) because our government openly supports the war against terrorism), reads the email. We are called obedient puppets of Americans and we do not deserve to stay in the Kingdom since the Philippine government openly sides with the United States, it adds.
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Arabia
Al-Qaeda leader describes escape
2004-06-06
The alleged leader of deadly assaults against foreigners in the Saudi city of Al Khobar tells in a purported interview released yesterday how he and two accomplices escaped from security forces. The version, provided by the man identified as Fawaz bin Mohammad Nashami, contradicts an interior ministry statement and claims that the trio - said to be from the Al Qaeda terror network - had struck a deal for safe passage. The ministry said three of the killers escaped but the leader, one of the most wanted militants in the kingdom, was wounded and captured when Saudi commandos landed on the roof of the building at dawn last Saturday. "It was almost 11:30 at night, the security forces thought we were still in the hotel," Nashami said in an interview released by Islamist sources and posted on websites. In London, The Times newspaper reported that three gunmen were allowed to walk free when they cut a deal with Saudi authorities after threatening to kill more Westerners.
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Arabia
Hostage: Security Forces Allowed The Gunman To Escape
2004-06-01
A nationwide manhunt is under way in Saudi Arabia for at least three Islamic militants who evaded capture after a bloody 25-hour hostage siege in Khobar. Police have set up checkpoints to catch the gunmen who killed 22 people and took about 50 foreigners hostage. Officials say the group’s leader was wounded and captured, but that the others escaped using hostages as human shields and then hijacking a car. But one hostage has claimed security forces allowed the gunman to escape.

The Saudi Interior Ministry says the foreigners who were killed came from Britain, Egypt, India, Italy, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and the US. It said 25 people of different nationalities were wounded.
VICTIMS’ NATIONALITIES
Eight Indians
Three Filipinos
Three Saudis
Two Sri Lankans
One American
One Italian
One Swede (Australian)
One South African
One Briton
One Egyptian
The Interior Ministry said 41 hostages were freed on Sunday morning when Saudi commandos stormed the Oasis residential compound, which houses company executives. In all, 22 people were killed. Thirteen people were gunned down on Saturday, and nine hostages were killed after they reportedly tried to escape during the night. A staff member from the compound has relayed an account from a freed hostage who said a deal was done in which the gunmen were allowed to escape in exchange for not blowing up the building. That version of events has not been confirmed, but BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood says questions are being asked about exactly what did happen.
1. Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre: Four gunmen arrive at 0715 Saturday, shoot at guards, enter building and fire at employees.
2. Arab Petroleum Investments Corp: Gunmen shoot British employee dead in his car at gate.
3. Oasis compound: Gunmen enter compound and take about 50 people hostage on sixth floor of hotel building. At 0530 on Sunday, Saudi forces land on roof and storm building. Nine hostages are found dead, 41 are released. Three militants escape, one is arrested.
The Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, has rejected any idea of collusion between the attackers and the security forces and insisted the authorities were fighting terror groups using all means available. He told the BBC’s Today programme that the attackers go for the softest targets and if they really did have helpers in positions of authority they would be able to attack much more high-profile targets. Security sources said a car the militants used to escape had been found abandoned on the outskirts of the nearby city of Damman.

The UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia has warned that more attacks are likely. Sherard Cowper Coles said there was no intelligence about specific threats, but that a picture was emerging of scores of militants actively planning attacks of the kind seen in Khobar. Britain is advising against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia, but has not yet followed the US in telling its citizens to leave. An audiotape posted on an Islamic website claimed the attack for al-Qaeda. "We will cleanse the Arabian peninsula of infidels," the tape said.
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