Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is holding Abdullah Al-Khalidi, the Saudi diplomat kidnapped last month in Yemen's main southern city of Aden, a senior Ministry of Interior official said here Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the ministry, said an Al-Qaeda member confirmed in a telephone call to the Saudi ambassador in Sana'a that the network “is responsible for the kidnapping of the deputy concul in Yemen, saying that their demands include handing over several prisoners to members of the network in Yemen”. The caller, Mishal Muhammad Rasheed Al-Shodokhi, one of the 85 men on the Saudi list of wanted terrorists, assured the ambassador that the kidnapped envoy was in perfect health. Al-Shodokhi also threatened more attacks including an embassy bombing and the assassination of a Saudi prince. Al-Khalidi, the Kingdom's deputy consul, was kidnapped outside his residence in Aden on March 28. “There are some people here who have been calling, ever since Khalidi was kidnapped, to prepare the knives (to kill him)... Now it is a consul kidnapped, tomorrow it will be an embassy bombing and after that a prince killed,” Al-Shodokhi said, according to a transcript of his conversation with the embassy released by the Saudi authorities. __
