Saudi list of most wanted suspected terrorists

Periodically Saudi Arabias Ministry of Interior publishes a most wanted list. According to Asharq Alawsat Saudi Arabia has published four lists of "most wanted" suspected terrorists, and those lists contained 19, 26, 36 and 85 individuals.

The list of 85 most wanted suspected terrorists published in February 2009 named eleven former Guantanamo captives.

On May 7, 2003, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced a list of 19 names who it said were planning to carry out subversive activities. On May 12, 2003 Riyadh compound bombings took place.

A list published on December 5, 2003 contained twenty-six names. When a new list was published in February 2009 Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that all but one of the captives had been killed or captured.

The list of June 28, 2005 contained thirty-six names. The Saudi government encouraged those named on the list to surrender, and promised lenient treatment. By April 7, 2007 the Saudi government reported that twenty-three of those individuals had been killed or captured.

The most recently published list was published on February 3, 2009. It listed 85 individuals, 83 of whom were Saudis, and two were from Yemen. Carol Rosenberg, reporting in the Miami Herald, wrote that six of the men on the new most wanted list were former Guantanamo captives. Robert Worth, reporting in the New York Times, wrote that fourteen Saudis, formerly held in Guantanamo, had fallen under suspicion of supporting terrorism following their release. The men were all believed to be living outside of Saudi Arabia, some of them receiving militant training. They were promised lenient treatment, and encouraged to turn themselves in at the nearest Saudi embassy.

Those on the new list include three Saudis who appeared in a threatening al Qaeda video:Said Ali al-Shihri, Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, and another individual named Abdullah al-Qarawi. Al-Wuhayshi claims he is the leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Shihri and Al-Awfi are former Guantanamo captives, and Al-Shihri stated he was Al-Wuyashi's deputy.

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