U.S. Puts Saudi Leader of Abdullah Azzam Brigades on Terror List
The U.S. administration on Thursday placed Saleh al-Qarawi, a senior Saudi member of the Lebanon-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades, on its blacklist of global terrorists.
The move freezes any assets held by Qarawi in the United States and bans Americans from doing business with him.
The U.S. Department of State said it labeled Qarawi as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” describing him as “a senior leader and operative for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.”
“According to media reports, AAB claimed responsibility for the July 28, 2010 maritime bombing of a Japanese oil tanker, the M. Star. AAB has also claimed responsibility for firing several rockets into Israel from Lebanon since 2009,” the State Department added.
“Prior to his activity with AAB, al-Qarawi fought against U.S. forces in Fallujah, Iraq. While there, he worked with now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former head of al-Qaida in Iraq,” it noted.
Qarawi is wanted for extradition by the Saudi government “for participating in extremist activities abroad. He is also the subject of an Interpol Orange Notice issued on March 25, 2009, for activities related to terrorism,” said the State Department.
“The action taken against this individual demonstrates the United States’ resolve in eliminating AAB’s ability to execute violent attacks.”
The group has denied claiming responsibility for a recent rocket attack from southern Lebanon against Israel, instead blaming a group linked to Hizbullah, a U.S. monitoring group said.
In a statement issued on jihadist forums, the Brigades said the November 29 attack should be seen as a warning to the West and Israel from embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
"The Brigades declared that the attack ... is to be construed as a message from Assad to Israel and the West, that if his regime is made to fall, then the field will open to the youth of the Sunni people to attack the Jewish state," SITE said.
The group gave examples of what it said was Syria's and Hizbullah's "cunning," claiming, for example, that Syrian intelligence was behind the March kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Lebanon’s Bekaa region.
The seven were freed unharmed in July.
The Brigades in their statement said it was clear that Damascus and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah were keen for political reasons to blame the group for any security incidents in Lebanon, including a July attack on U.N. troops.
Abdullah Azzam, the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's mentor, was killed in a 1989 bomb blast.
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Naharnet
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