Periodically Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior publishes a most wanted list.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] According to Asharq Alawsat Saudi Arabia has published four lists of "most wanted" suspected terrorists, and those lists contained 19, 26, 36 and 85 individuals.[1]
The list of 85 most wanted suspected terrorists published in February 2009 named eleven former Guantanamo captives.[11]
On May 7, 2003, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced a list of 19 names who it said were planning to carry out subversive activities.[12] On May 12, 2003, the Riyadh compound bombings took place.
English | Arabic | ||
---|---|---|---|
1 | Turki Nasir Al-Dandani | تركي ناصر الدندني | died by suicide July 2003 in al-Jawf[13][14] |
2 | Ali A. Al-Ghamdi | علي عبد الرحمن الفقعسي الغامدي | surrendered 26 June 2003[15] |
3 | Khalid al-Juhani | خالد محمد الجهني | one of twelve dead perpetrators of the Riyadh compound bombings.[16] |
4 | Saleh M. al-Oufi | صالح محمد عوض الله العلوي العوفي | became the leader after al-Muqrin death, killed 17 or 18 August 2005 in Madinah[17] |
5 | Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin | عبد العزيز عيسى المقرن | became the leader after al-Ayiri's death, killed in Riyadh 18 June 2004[18][19] |
6 | Abdulrahman M. Yazji | عبدالرحمن محمد يازجي | killed 6 April 2005[20] |
7 | Hani S. Al-Ghamdi | هاني سعيد الغامدي | [21] |
8 | Mohammed O. Al-Waleedi Al-Shihri | محمد عثمان الوليدي الشهري | [14] |
9 | Rakan M. Al-Saikhan | راكان محسن الصيخان | killed 12 April 2004 in Riyadh |
10 | Yusuf Salih al-Ayiri | يوسف صالح العييري الملقب بالبتار | Islamic scholar, writer and al-Qaeda member killed June 2003 in Saudi Arabia[22] |
11 | Othman H. Al Maqboul al-'Amari | عثمان هادي آل مقبول العمري | recanted, under an amnesty deal, 28 June 2004[23][24] |
12 | Bandar A. Al-Ghamdi | بندر عبد الرحمن الغامدي | captured September 2003 in Yemen[25] and extradited to KSA |
13 | Ahmad N. Al-Dakheel | أحمد ناصر الدخيل | killed on July 28 in a police raid on a farm in Al-Qassim Province[26] |
14 | Hamid F. Al-Asalmi al-Shammri | حمد فهد الأسلمي الشمري | [14] |
15 | Faisal A. Al-Dakheel | فيصل عبدالرحمن الدخيل | killed with al-Muqrin[19] |
16 | Sultan J. Al-Qahtani alias Zubayr Al-Rimi | سلطان جبران القحطاني | q.v., killed 23 September 2003 in Jizan |
17 | Jubran A. Hakami | جبران علي حكمي | [21] |
18 | Abdul-Rahman M. Jabarah | عبدالرحمن منصور جبارة | "Canadian-Kuwaiti of Iraqi origin",[14] dead according to al-Qaeda; brother of Kuwaiti-Canadian Mohamed Mansour Jabarah |
19 | Khalid A. Hajj or Abu-Hazim al-Sha'ir[27] | خالد علي بن علي حاج | leader, killed in Riyadh March or April 2004[28] |
A list published on December 5, 2003 contained twenty-six names.[4] When a new list was published in February 2009 Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that all, but one of the captives had been killed or captured.[29]
The list of June 28, 2005 contained thirty-six names.[4][5][6] The Saudi government encouraged those named on the list to surrender, and promised lenient treatment. By April 7, 2007 the Saudi government reported that twenty-three of those individuals had been killed or captured.
The most recently published list was published on February 3, 2009.[10][29][35][36] It listed 85 individuals, 83 of whom were Saudis, and two were from Yemen. Carol Rosenberg, reporting in the Miami Herald, wrote that six of the men on the new most wanted list were former Guantanamo captives. Robert Worth, reporting in the New York Times, wrote that fourteen Saudis, formerly held in Guantanamo, had fallen under suspicion of supporting terrorism following their release.[37] The men were all believed to be living outside of Saudi Arabia, some of them receiving militant training. They were promised lenient treatment, and encouraged to turn themselves in at the nearest Saudi embassy.
Those on the new list include three Saudis who appeared in a threatening al Qaeda video:[37] Said Ali al-Shihri, Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, and another individual named Abdullah al-Qarawi. Al-Wuhayshi claims he is the leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Shihri and Al-Awfi are former Guantanamo captives, and Al-Shihri stated he was Al-Wuyashi's deputy.
The Saudi Gazette reported that Saudi security officials identified an individual named Saleh Al-Qaraawi as the leader of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.[10]
An article published in Asharq Alawsat on February 6, 2009, noted the range in age among the suspects—from seventeen to fifty-two.[38] This article named Abdullah El Qarawi, who it described as the "most dangerous" individual on the list, as the leader of Al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf. According to the article Abdullah El Qarawi is just 26 years old, and most of the individuals on the list are between 25 and 25. The article listed the names and ages of fifteen other individuals.
Another article in the Asharq Alawsat identified other individual from the list, including: Abdullah al-Abaed—wanted for the assassination of a senior police official, and Mohamed Abul-Khair, one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, and one of his sons-in-law.[39]
On February 7, 2009 the Saudi Gazette reported some details of some of the wanted men.[11] The article named seven men it identified as former Guantanamo captives, and five other most wanted suspected terrorists it did not identify as former Guantanamo captives.
ISN | Rank | Age | Names | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
71 | 27 | Mish'al Muhammad Rashid Al-Shedocky |
| |
105 | 31 | Adnan Muhammed Ali Al Saigh[11] |
| |
114 | 23 | Yousuf Mohammed Mubarak Al Jubairi Al Shahri |
| |
177 | Fahd Salih Sulayman Al Jutayli | |||
184 | 35 | Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi[11] |
| |
185 | 31 | Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri[38] |
| |
187 | 32 | Murtadha al Said Makram[11] |
| |
188 | 34 | Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi[38] |
| |
192 | 29 | Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh |
| |
333 | 35 | Mohamed Atiq Awayd Al Harbi |
| |
372 | 35 | Said Ali al-Shihri |
| |
Nasir al-Wuhayshi |
| |||
34 | Mohamed Abul-Khair |
| ||
16or17 | Abdullah Al Jebairi Al Shahri |
| ||
20 | Baheij Al-Buheajy[38] | |||
29 | 20 | Rayed Abdullah Salem Al Harbi | ||
21 | Naif Mohamed Al Qahtani[38] | |||
21 | Hamd Hussein Nasser Al Hussein[38] | |||
22 | Hassan Ibrahim Hamd Al Shaban[38] | |||
23 | Abdullah al-Asiri |
| ||
26 | Saleh Al-Qaraawi | |||
31 | Ahmed Abdullah Al Zahrani[38] | |||
37 | Ibrahim al-Asiri[38] | |||
15 | 38 | Badr Al Oufi Al Harbi[38][56] | ||
43 | 39 | Abdullah Abdul-Rahman Al Harbi[38][56] | ||
52 | Hussein Abdu Mohamed[38] | |||
Abdulmohsin Al-Sharikh |
| |||
Abdullah Al-Juwair |
| |||
6 | Ahmad Al-Shiha |
| ||
31 | Aqil Al-Mutairi |
| ||
60 | 27 | Faiz Al-Harbi |
| |
Qasim al-Raymi |
| |||
Obaida Abdul-Rahman Al Otaibi |
| |||
32 | Sultan Radi al-Utaibi | |||
47 | Abdullah Mohammed Abdullah al-Ayad |
| ||
Ahmed Owaidan Al-Harbi |
| |||
73 | Mohammed Otaik Owaid Al-Aufi Al-Harbi[56] | |||
26 | Khaled Saleem Owaid Al-Luhaibi Al-Harbi[56] | |||
34 | Abdullah Thabet |
| ||
61 | 31 | Fahd Raggad Samir Al-Ruwaili |
| |
Badr Mohammed Nasser al-Shihri |
December 6, 2003 list[30]
According to the Saudi Gazette, the list was published by Interpol on January 5, 2011.[67][68][69] They reported one of the wanted men was 18, 34 of the men were between 20 and 30, and the remaining 12 were between 30 and 40. The list of 47 suspects included the following individuals:[70]
According to the Agence France Presse, the SPA News Agency reported on May 23, 2009, that three Saudis suspected of ties to Al Qaida returned to Saudi Arabia and turned themselves in to authorities.[75] The Arab News reported the identities of the three men were not made public, but that they had not been listed on the February 2009 most-wanted list.[76] The Saudi Gazette reported that only two of the men voluntarily surrendered and that the third man was captured in Yemen.[77]
On October 19, 2010, when reporting the surrender of Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi and Badr Mohammed Nasser al-Shihri, the Associated Press asserted that 70 of the original 85 men named on the list remained at large or unaccounted for.[66]
Al-Arabiya satellite news channel said the statement identified one of the militants, Saleh Al-Qaraawi, as the leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.
Al Haseri's name featured in the list of 36 names announced by Saudi Arabia in June of this year. He was 29 years of age and lived in Riyadh. Owaida's name, however, was not included. According to new information obtained by Asharq Al Awsat, al Haseri died after his explosives belt detonated during following exchanges of fire in one of the capital's northern neighborhoods on Thursday. He had recently moved to the capital, after hiding in Medina, to hold discussions with other militants.
Sources told al-Hayat that other Saudi militants called their families and asked them to inform the family of al-Jolaiti that he along with a companion were killed.
He was one of 85 al-Qaida operatives wanted by Saudi authorities. The list, published in February, has now shrunk to 70.
Interpol says it has placed 47 Saudis with alleged links to the al-Qaida terror network on its most-wanted list.
The international alerts, or "red notices," that Interpol issued for the men are not tantamount to international arrest warrants. It is up to individual states to determine whether to act upon them.
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry has issued a new list of 47 most-wanted Saudi terrorists linked to al Qaeda. All of the 47 most-wanted leaders and fighters belonging to al Qaeda are outside of the Saudi kingdom.