 CAIRO - London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Wednesday that Abdullah al-Romyan, a terrorist on Saudi Arabiaâs most wanted list, was arrested by Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
| Points off for spelling. They're referring to Abdullah Mohamed Al-Rumayan, Numbah 17... |
âWe want him and believe he is a very important suspect,â the report quoted a Saudi security force source as saying.
| "And when we get him it's grape juice for everyone!" he added. |
Al-Romyanâs name appears on a new list released on Tuesday by the Saudi government of 36 wanted terrorists in the kingdom. In addition to al-Romyan, the list includes 29 Saudis, three Chadians, a Kuwaiti, a Yemeni and a Mauritanian. Al-Romyanâs brother is believed to have killed 11 policemen in a suicide bomb attack in Mosul in January 2004.
Moroccan national Younes Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, 36, heads the list of Al Qaeda suspects and is believed to be the leader of the terror groupâs cells in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hayari has more experience of fighting than the younger Saudi members of the group, having fought in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the security source said. The Moroccan is said to have entered Saudi Arabia in 2001 on a Bosnian passport. Al-Hayari has good contacts with Al Qaeda terrorists outside Saudi Arabia and is responsible for financing and organizing the terror cells in the kingdom, the source said.
Terrorism experts have expressed concern that increasing pressure from manhunts in Saudi Arabia may have pushed some extremists into leaving the country to join terror groups in Iraq. The news comes as Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz said that security forces have caught 90 per cent of the people responsible for terrorist acts in the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday. âWe have not said that terror acts are over. The possibility of crimes still stands, but in 90 per cent of these acts, the perpetrators were caught by security forces,â Naif said at a press conference after a graduation ceremony in Riyadh late Tuesday.
| When do the beheadings start? I won't believe they're serious until they do some public beheadings. |
Naif pointed out that the suspects on a previous list of 26 and the new suspects belong to the same organization, Al Qaeda, despite some differences in structure. In response to a question whether some of the wanted terrorists are in Iraq, Naif said there was no information about their location or if they are alive or not. Naif noted that the suspects on the new list may not be the most dangerous and there could be more dangerous individuals who have not been identified so far. |