DUBAI, Aug 14 (AFP): A Saudi leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has urged sympathizers in the Saudi security forces to kill Christians living in the kingdom, in an audio message released yesterday. The purported audiotape, posted on a website used by Islamists, also repeated an often-made call to overthrow the Saudi government and called for attacks on Israel. "Those of you who work in guarding the tyrants of princes or ministers, or the compounds inhabited by Christians, or can reach them, should seek God's help and kill them," said AQAP's number two, Said Al-Shihri. Shihri, a former inmate of the US military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claimed that AQAP has received correspondence from members of Saudi armed forces asking for "guidance.
He urged the Al-Qaeda followers, however, to make sure that they avoid killing Muslims by mistake during their attacks. "Fear God with regards to Muslims' blood... even if that was a reason to postpone your attack," he said. Shihri also urged any followers in the armed forces to attack Israel from the northwestern tip of Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Aqaba, across the water from the Israeli resort of Eilat.
Carry your arms against Israel, which is only few kilometers away from you, whose lights you can see (at night) from the city of Haql," he said. "Whoever among you is a pilot should seek martyrdom in the skies of Palestine, and who works in the navy should aim his weapon at the Jews there," he added. Shihri called for forming cells within the armed and security forces to recruit sympathizers "to make the toppling of Al-Saud easier.
In June, Shihri urged Al-Qaeda supporters in Saudi Arabia to kidnap princes and Christians in order to secure the release of militants, including female "preacher" Heila Al-Qsayer, a widow of a Saudi Al-Qaeda militant killed six years ago by the Saudi authorities. Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia launched a deadly wave of attacks against Westerners and government installations in 2003, but has been dealt severe blows by the authorities, forcing them eventually to regroup in Yemen.
Saudi and Yemeni militants announced the merging of their factions in Yemen in January 2009, as intelligence reports have warned that Yemen has become a regrouping haven for Al-Qaeda veterans. Authorities in Yemen have launched a fierce military campaign against AQAP, which has claimed responsibility for the botched attempt to blow up a US airliner over Detroit last Christmas. Yemen is the ancestral homeland of the Saudi-born Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who has been stripped of his Saudi nationality.