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| Arabia |
| Al-Qaeda leader dead in Riyadh firefight |
| 2005-07-05 |
| Saudi Arabia's security forces killed a wanted al-Qaeda leader in a clash in the capital Riyadh early yesterday, the Interior Ministry has announced. Moroccan national Younis Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hayyari, accused of involvement in a series of recent attacks in the world's biggest oil-exporting nation, died after exchanging fire and hurling hand grenades at police, the ministry said in a statement yesterday. Mr. al-Hayyari's name was at the top of a list of 36 al-Qaeda suspects Riyadh announced last week. The ministry said he had helped prepare explosives and had played a part in several attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia. "He was recently nominated by his colleagues to be the leader of strife and corruption in the land, after the death of his predecessors," the statement said. Interior Minister Prince Nayef said the operation in which Mr. al-Hayyari was killed was the result of extensive surveillance by Saudi security forces. "What happened today was the result of the effort of the previous period and, God willing, we will reach the rest using the same method," he said after visiting wounded security forces in hospital. There have been fewer attacks this year, but in June attackers gunned down a senior security officer in Mecca and diplomats say three helicopters were set on fire at a military base north of Riyadh. Successive leaders of the Saudi wing of al-Qaeda have been killed since 2003 and Saudi officials say their replacements are increasingly inexperienced. But Western counterterrorism experts say al-Qaeda has shown resilience and an ability to regenerate. Another man was arrested at the scene of yesterday's clash and two others surrendered without a struggle in a simultaneous police raid in the same district of eastern Riyadh. Prince Nayef described Mr. al-Hayyari as a "dangerous man" but said others on the wanted list were just as dangerous. The three captured men were not on the wanted list, he added without elaborating. Last week, Saudi Arabia issued the new wanted list of al-Qaeda suspects. Most were Saudis but some were from Chad, Yemen, Morocco and Mauritania. Fifteen were believed to be at large inside Saudi Arabia, while 21 were outside the kingdom. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |