| The ’real’ chief of al-Qaida cells in Saudi Arabia is Yemeni national Khalid Hajj rather than Saudi Abd al-Aziz al-Migrin, a Saudi newspaper reported on Monday. Asharq al-Awsat, a leading pan-Arab daily, has said al-Qaida has designated al-Migrin, 31, as the nominal leader of the group in Saudi Arabia because he is Saudi and this would help ensure the support of its sympathisers in the country. The newspaper did not give a source for its report, datelined Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Asharq al-Awsat noted al-Megren topped the list of militants wanted by authorities for presumed links with a series of suicide bombings that killed 52 people in Riyadh last year. While Hajj is a Yemeni national, he was born in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jidda. The only Yemeni on the most-wanted list, he is in his thirties and goes by the name of Abu Hazim al-Shaair, Asharq al-Awsat said. It said US intelligence reports in October spoke of signs that Hajj had become the operations commander of al-Qaida in the Gulf region, but the reports were not confirmed at the time. Hajj is said to be in Riyadh, where he is being hunted by security forces. |