Tip-offs from Saudi citizens led the security forces to arrest three terror suspects on Monday, including number ten on Saudi Arabia's 36 most wanted list. A statement from the interior ministry, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, said 25-year-old Muhammad ibn Saeed al-Siyam al-Amri, was arrested in Medina, along with two of his associates.
Al-Amri was arrested "after a group of citizens followed him and informed [the authorities] about him. Security forces caught him and stripped him of a pipe bomb he was carrying," the statement said.
A fourth terror suspect was arrested after the security forces surrounded a two-story villa in the al-Jazirah district, east of the capital Riyadh, in the early hours of Monday morning, and sealed off the neighbourhood. A spokesman from the interior ministry said the man surrendered without any struggle.
The most wanted list was issued on June 28 this year and a reward of up to seven million Saudi riyals (1.87 million US dollars) was offered to anyone who helped capture any of the men or foiled a planned terror attack. Just five days later the number one on the list - the suspected leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Moroccan Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari - was killed in a shootout with the security forces. The latest list follows two previous lists issued in 2003. Most of the terror suspects on those lists have now been killed or captured.
Meanwhile, the US embassy has banned all its military personnel from travelling around Saudi Arabia, saying the measure was in response to indications of operational planning for a terrorist attack or attacks in the kingdom. Military staff have been told to suspend all non-duty travel outside their workplaces or residences. |