SAUDI ARABIA: The second Saudi militant in a week urged his former comrades yesterday to follow his lead and surrender under an amnesty aimed at ending a year of attacks linked to al-Qaeda in the kingdom.
Othman al-Amri, on a list of 26 top militant suspects, said in a state television interview that he had "seen the right path" and was now deeply regretful.
"Some people said this amnesty is a ploy, but I assure them that it is not and I urge them to take advantage of this chance before it's too late. It's not in their interest to ignore it."
The government says it will drop charges against militants who surrender, but families of their victims can push for punishment.
"I call on all the brothers to forget everything they had heard about mistreatment from the authorities," said Amri, the most senior militant to surrender under the one-month amnesty announced last week.
Saudi television broadcast a similar interview on Tuesday with Saaban al-Shihri, the first militant to use the amnesty, and has in the past shown the same kind of apparently repentant confession by detained militant clerics and captured fighters.
The interviews appear part of a media campaign by the authorities to turn the public against al-Qaeda, whose Saudi branch has said the amnesty will fail.
In the interview, Amri did not admit to belonging to the local wing of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda or say whether he was directly involved in the recent wave of violence.
Security forces say Amri fought in Afghanistan and is a member of the group which has so far killed at least 85 police and civilians in Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday, Saudi security forces killed one of al Qaeda's top spiritual guides, Abdullah al-Roshood, in a shoot-out in Riyadh, security sources said.
Al-Qaeda has said its attacks are aimed at toppling the pro-US monarchy in the world's biggest oil exporter.