DUBAI: A top Saudi member of Al Qaeda slammed the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s support for the Egyptian army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Mursi, in a video message posted online yesterday.
“One of their latest crimes is supporting the secular forces in Egypt against the government of Mursi,” Ibrahim Al Rubaish said in a statement.
Rubaish is considered the religion affairs chief of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based franchise of the jihadist network, formed in a 2009 merger of its Saudi and Yemeni branches.
“The son of Saud was the first to offer congratulations after the fall of the government of Mursi, and the most generous supporter, offering billions to the Tamarod government that rebelled against everything, including Allah,” he said.
Tamarod, or rebellion in Arabic, was the movement behind nationwide protests that preceded the Egypt military intervention to depose Mursi on July 3.
In Egypt, authorities arrested an Islamist militant yesterday, saying he was close to the brother of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahri and had supplied arms to Mursi’s supporters.
Security sources said the authorities described the man, Daoud Khairat, as the “right-hand man” of Mohamed Al Zawahri, who was himself arrested in Egypt on August 17. The Brotherhood denies using firearms and says it has no links to Al Qaeda.
Earlier in the day, the army said it had captured five militants in Sheikh Zowayed, a town in North Sinai, saying they had been involved in attacks on security forces in the area.
A son of senior Brotherhood politician Mohamed Al Beltagi was also detained in the southern city of Beni Suef, the security sources said, in a continuing wave of arrests.
Agencies
