Man to face Saudi trial for shooting missile at U.S. plane

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A suspected al-Qaida leader who claims to have fired a missile at a U.S. warplane leaving a Saudi Arabian base was returned to Saudi Arabia for trial, Sudan said Sunday.

The Sudanese man admitted firing a surface-to-air missile at a plane taking off from Prince Sultan Air Base, south of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, an Interior Ministry statement said. The unidentified man then sneaked back into Sudan, although the statement did not say how.

The statement said the man had an unspecified number of Saudi accomplices, who are in custody and have confessed to Saudi authorities.

Fears that a missile was fired at a U.S. plane in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state surfaced in May after Saudi security guards found a missile launcher tube about two miles from a runway at the desert air base.

On Wednesday, a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity said a Sudanese man suspected of leading a cell of Osama bin Laden's terror network acknowledged shooting a shoulder-fired SA-7 surface-to-air missile at the American plane.

The man's return to Saudi Arabia follows official negotiations to have the man tried there. It also came as Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir visited Saudi Arabia to discuss the Mideast crisis and bilateral relations with the Persian Gulf state's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah.

About 4,500 U.S. troops and an unspecified number of American warplanes use the Saudi base.

The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, since the 1991 Gulf War is one of bin Laden's stated reasons for attacking Americans.

Sudan has refused to confirm U.S. claims it arrested suspected militants after the Sept. 11 attacks.