Man arrested in Riyadh bombings

WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia has arrested a senior figure in al- Qaida who is believed to have played a crucial role in planning and carrying out the May bombings in Riyadh that killed 34 people, including eight Americans. The same man was thought to be planning further operations against U.S. targets, senior American and Saudi officials said on Thursday.

The arrest of the man, Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, also known as Abu Bakr al-Azdi, was described by the officials as a major step. He was perhaps the most senior al-Qaida official in Saudi Arabia, the officials said, and had close links to other Qaida leaders, including Saif al-Adel, a fugitive who is regarded as al- Qaida's security chief.

Ghamdi had been named by Saudi officials as the prime suspect in the May bombings. His name and picture were also included among those of the 19 men sought in connection with an arms cache that was seized in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, several days before the attack.

A senior Saudi official said that Ghamdi surrendered on Thursday morning to the Saudi authorities in Jidda, a port city on the Red Sea. The official described Ghamdi as "one of al-Qaida's top operatives in Saudi Arabia" and said he had been the subject of an intense manhunt for weeks.

"This is a significant development," the senior Saudi official said.

The U.S. officials did not disclose the details of future operations that Ghamdi was thought to have been planning but said they were to have taken place both inside and outside of Saudi Arabia.

At least 11 people were arrested last month in connection with the bombings on May 12 of three housing compounds in Riyadh, according to Saudi officials. Some Saudi newspapers had reported that those arrested at that time included Ghamdi. But Thursday's accounts by the U.S. officials were the most authoritative indication that Ghamdi was now in custody.

Some of the Americans who died in the attacks worked for defense firms that were part of a U.S. military program that provides training to the Saudi national guard, and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh has since warned that more attacks on U.S. targets in the kingdom could be coming.

Prince Nayef, the Saudi interior minister, would not confirm last month whether Ghamdi had been arrested, but he said a full report would be released whenever the investigation was concluded.

A U.S. government official described Ghamdi as being 30 years old and said he had risen swiftly in the Qaida ranks in the last year. He had fled Afghanistan's Tora Bora region in the late fall of 2001, said the official, just before U.S. bombing attacks there began.

A Saudi newspaper, Al Watan, has reported that Ghamdi dropped out of college to join the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, and had made several trips to Afghanistan.

A letter circulating on the Internet that has been attributed to Ghamdi exhorts the faithful to join the holy war against the West because the struggle had not reached its peak. But an elder in his family, 13 of whose members have been accused of taking part in terrorist attacks, has denied to the Beirut-based Arabic daily Al Hayat that the letter was written by Ghamdi.

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