A senior al Qaeda militant was killed in clashes between Saudi police and wanted suspects in the capital Riyadh on Sunday, Al Arabiya television said. The Saudi-owned satellite channel identified the militant killed as Moroccan national Younis Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hayyari, whose name is on a newly issued list of 36 al Qaeda suspects believed to be linked to attacks in Saudi Arabia.Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki confirmed that a suspect was killed in the clash, but said it was too soon to say if he was on the new list. "There was a security operation in a location in Riyadh where it is thought some people from the latest wanted list were," Turki said. "One person was killed, but we do not know how many were injured or arrested."
The Gulf Arab state, the world's top oil exporter, has been battling militants loyal to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, who have staged bloody attacks on foreign residents, government sites and energy-industry installations for more than two years. Last week, Saudi Arabia issued the new wanted list of al Qaeda suspects -- most of whom 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. All but two men on a previous Saudi list of 26 wanted militants, published in December 2003, are believed dead or in custody.