Mystery of 20th Hijacker Solved, According to al Qaeda

Email

Print

Share

June 14, 2006 9:15 AM

A Saudi militant killed in 2004 was supposed to be the 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, according to a statement posted on the internet by al Qaeda's media branch.

"Turki bin Fheid al-Muteiri, Fawaz al-Nashmi, may God accept him as a martyr, [was] the one chosen by Sheikh Osama bin Laden to be the martyrdom-seeker number 20 in the raid on September 11, 2001," the statement reads.

It goes on to say a change of date prevented al-Muteiri from participating in the attacks.

The announcement comes three weeks after bin Laden, on a tape posted on a website, said Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the attacks and in fact did not even know they were going to take place. Last month, after pleading guilty to conspiracy in connection with the attacks, Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of release.

Muteiri, the "20th hijacker," took part in one of the bloodiest attacks in the oil city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia that left 22 civilians dead in 2004. He was later killed that year in an exchange of gunfire with Saudi forces in Riyadh.

Since 9/11, there has been much speculation about the identity of a possible 20th hijacker. While three planes used in the 9/11 attacks had five hijackers on board, United Flight 93 had only four. Besides Moussaoui, the list of those suspected of being the 20th hijacker, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, included Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was captured in September 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan and whose whereabouts are now unknown, and Mohammed al-Qhatani, who was denied entry into the U.S. at Orlando International Airport in August 2001, was later captured in Afghanistan and is now imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.