Saudi pleads guillty to buying supplies for al-Qaida attacks on ships

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A Saudi man held at Guantanamo for more than a decade has pleaded guilty to being a personal shopper for al-Qaida militants planning attacks, officials say.

Sentencing for Ahmad al Darbi, 39, was postponed, suggesting he could be a witness in the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

Darbi was charged with buying navigational equipment and boats in 2002 to be used in an attack on a civilian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

Some of that equipment was used in attack on a French-flagged oil tanker, the Limburg, in October 2002 after Darbi had been arrested. One crew member died in the attack.