RIYADH, Saudi Arabia- Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, a Moroccan, who was thought to be the al-Qaeda chief in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has been killed after a fierce gun-battle with Saudi security forces in Riyadh on Sunday. An Interior Ministry official released this news to the media.
An unidentified source was quoted as saying in the Saudi Press Agency that al-Hayari was a staunch follower of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and was the head of the terror network in the kingdom. Al Arabiya television also reported that al-Hayari was hiding out with three other suspects; two of whom were injured while the remaining man surrendered.
The Saudi forces were descending on the hideout when the suspected militants hurled homemade explosives at them. The Saudis returned fire. The interior ministry official said that al-Hayari was killed when forces conducted a raid on an area that was thought to be the militants' hideout.
Brig. Mansour al-Turki, the spokesman, added that a fierce battle ensued in Rawdah district, a posh neighborhood in eastern Riyadh. Brig al-Turki said that some of the militants who were holed up in the district were on the new list of 36 most wanted militants in the kingdom. The militants "are believed to be part of the last group sharing the same ideology and linked to the terrorist acts in the kingdom," he said. The new list does not contain three names from the list of 26 most wanted militants that was released by Saudi Arabia in 2003. Saudi Arabia has claimed that its forces have killed 23 people who figured in the 2003 list.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that al-Hayari entered Saudi Arabia in 2001 on a pilgrimage visa and chose to stay back in the country with his wife and young daughter. He was "nominated by his peers, following the death of those preceding him, to be the head of sedition and corruption in the land," Brig al-Turki said. Hayari is believed to have had close links with Karim al-Majati, an al-Qaeda leader who was killed in April 2005.
Saudi Arabia has been al-Qaeda's target since the last two years. The kingdom has been battling terrorists who have disrupted normal life there.
