Al-Qaeda's new leader in Saudi Arabia is a Moroccan, Younus Mohamed al-Hayari, who is number one on a new interior ministry list of the 36 most dangerous terrorists, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday. The interior ministry released the new list on Tuesday, after al-Qaeda announced that one of the last on an earlier list of 26 most wanted militants - Abdullah al-Rashud - had been killed in Iraq. It is thought 24 of the 26 are now dead or in custody.
Al-Hayari, who is 36 and has a wife and child, entered Saudi Arabia in 1991 to undertake the Haj pilgrimage. He has reportedly not left the country since then and has gone underground. He was last seen east of the capital, Riyadh.
Most of the interior ministry's 36 most wanted militants are Saudi Arabian, 15 of whom are believed to be in the kingdom, and the remaining 21, abroad. The non-Saudis are from Chad, Mauritania and Yemen. One Saudi security consultant, Nawaf Obaid, told the Saudi newspaper Arab News that the new 36 were "second tier" militants who had worked for more senior figures, most of whom have been killed or captured. |