Terrorism: 20th 9/11 hijacker named by al Qaeda cell

Riyadh, 13 June (AKI) - The twentieth hijacker of the 11 September attacks was not meant to be Zacarias Moussaoui, recently convicted for his role in the attacks on the US, but another terrorist, Turki Bin Fheid al-Muteiri, a statement from a Saudi al-Qaeda cell claims. The communique, posted to an Islamist website on Tuesday, announces the imminent release of a video showing the May 2004 attack on the Saudi oil complex at al-Khobat, in which 22 people were killed.The Saudi jihadi group said that the attack was carried out by four people including the man it says was destined to be the 20th hijacker.

"The operation at al-Khobar was carried out by four heroes of Islam, including Turki bin Fheid al-Muteiri (Fawaz al-Nashmi), who previously had been chosen by Sheikh Osama Bin Laden to be the 20th suicide bomber in the 11 September attacks. Brother Zacarias Moussaoui had not been chosen and had no links with the 11 September attacks, as the sheikh recalled in his last message," the statement said.

Moroccan-born Moussaoui, 37, received a life sentence from a US court last month, rather than the death penalty, for his role in the hijacking plot.

"But for some reasons, brother Mohammed Atta, through brother Ramzi Ben Sheba, had brought forward the date of the attack and therefore it was not in Allah's design for Turki to become a martyr along with his 19 brothers. Instead he (Allah) decided that his martyrdom would occur on the Arabic peninsula with the leader Abu Hajir, with whom he died in the attacks in the al-Malaz area of Riyadh."

In a video message on 24 May, Osama bin Laden, denied that Moussaoui had been chosen as the 20th member of the terrorist cell.