Rebels hold out beneath mosque

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 9

Rebels hold out beneath mosque

NZPA Beirut About 260 of the rebels who captured the Grand Mosque in Mecca 11 days ago were still holding out against Saudi troops, the leader of a group opposed to the Saudi monarchy has said. Nasser Said, chief official of the Union of Peoples of the Arab Peninsula, added that about 600 rebels have been killed so far, 100 others had succeeded in escaping, and about 1000 Saudi troops and police had died in last week’s battles. According to Mr Said, the! rebels were all holders of I Saudi passports and had no! connection with the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which has been! linked with the attack on! the mosque. “The brotherhood are the; best supporters of the Saudi regime, which encourages their activities, and have no interest in mounting such an operation. They are our enemies,” Mr Said added. The union, founded in 1947, was working to overthrow the monarchy and install a democratic state, Mr Said said. Mr Said, a Sunni Muslim: from the Shammar tribe, jsaid his information came

first hand in daily reports by courier from Mecca. The union had given indirect support to the mosque attackers, who came from “all circles and all social strata.” Their weapons., and gas masks came from arihy depots and they had been trained in the desert, Mr Said added. Saudi troops have been trying for two days to smoke out or drown rebels still entrenched in the basements of the mosque, it was reported from Jeddah. With orders to take them alive, the besiegers turned from using tear-gas grenades to throwing in burning car tyres and pumping in water to prevent the rebels from lying down. Efforts have so far failed, and the rebels are still refusing to come out of the labyrinth of corridors linking some 270 underground rooms. According to Saudi reports the rebels come from the Oteiba tribe of southern Saudi Arabia whose grudge against the Saudi royal family goes back to the establishment of modern Saudi Arabia in the 1920 s when the Oteibas were one of the groups defeated by the nowdominant Saud clan. The Saudis say the rebels were led by a drop-out religious student who had proclaimed himself the Muslim messiah.