ABU DHABI — Al Qaida has identified the 20th suicide hijacker in the
strikes against New York and Washington in 2001.
Al Qaida said a Saudi national had been selected by Osama Bin Laden to
be the 20th suicide hijacker in the operation to commandeer four U.S.
passenger jets and crash them into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and
White House. But Al Qaida said the operation, led by Mohammed Atta, was
launched earlier than planned and the Saudi did not arrive in the United
States in time.
"Turki Bin Fheid Al Muteiri — Fawaz Al Nashmi — may God accept him as
a martyr, was the one chosen by Sheik Osama Bin Laden to be the
martyrdom-seeker number 20 in the raid on Sept. 11, 2001," Al Qaida said in
a statement on Tuesday. "The operation was brought forward for some
circumstances that brother Mohammed Atta explained to the general
leadership."
[On Tuesday, Britain warned of impending Al Qaida strikes in Saudi
Arabia, Middle East Newsline reported. The British embassy in Riyad said Islamic insurgents could strike
Western aircraft bound for the Arab kingdom.]
Al Muteiri was killed in a clash with Saudi security forces in 2004. At
the time, he was regarded as a leading member of the Al Qaida network in
Saudi
Arabia.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Al Qaida operation in the United
States in 2001 were Saudi nationals. Atta was an Egyptian.
The United States asserted that Zacarias Moussaoui, sentenced to life in
prison by an American court, was the 20th Al Qaida hijacker. But in May, Bin
Laden said Moussaoui, who in 2005 pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection
with the Al Qaida suicide strikes, was not part of the 2001 plot.
Al Muteiri was said to have played a major role in the attack on a
foreign housing compound in Khobar in 2004. For more than a day, Al Qaida
fighters, posing as security guards, controlled the compound and executed 22
people. Later, Al Muteiri was killed in a shootout with Saudi forces in
Riyad.