RIYADH, 14 October 2004 — One of the three militants killed in Tuesday’s shootout in Riyadh was on the list of the 26 most wanted terrorists, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday. The ministry identified the man as Abdul Majeed ibn Muhammad Abdullah Al-Munie and said he was wanted for belonging to the deviant group, a term used by authorities for Al-Qaeda militants.
Munie and two other men — Essam ibn Muqbil Al-Otaibi and Abdul Hameed ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Yahya — were killed in a pre-dawn shootout on Tuesday near a luxury housing compound for foreigners in Riyadh. The action was part of a major crackdown on militants responsible for a series of terror attacks in the Kingdom.
“Inquiries have found that Munie took part in killings and was involved in recruiting collaborators to carry out his deviant ideas,” the ministry said. Munie was one of the chief ideologues of the Kingdom’s Al-Qaeda cell and he was a member of its Shariah Committee.
He graduated from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in 2002 with a “very good” GPA (grade point average). Some of his classmates said that he skipped many classes and even withdrew during some semesters. According to those who knew him, Abdul Majeed was a person who did not mix much with people.
His father, Sheikh Muhammad, encouraged him to become a judge but he chose to join the deviant group.
The Saudi authorities have been waging a relentless battle to eliminate the threat posed by Al-Qaeda militants. Six men on the wanted list gave themselves up to authorities under a royal amnesty declared by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd on June 23, shortly after the head of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Qaeda cell, Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, was killed.
With Munie’s death, only 10 of the 26 are still unaccounted for; the others have been killed, surrendered or arrested. Those still on the run include Saleh Al-Aufi, the present commander of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom, Abdullah Al-Rashoud, Sultan Al-Otaibi, two ideologues of the cell, and Abdul Kareem Al-Majati, the mastermind behind the Casablanca explosions, who is outside the country.
Al-Qaeda militants have been behind a series of bombings and shootings since May last year in which nearly 100 people, mostly expatriates, have been killed and more than 200 have been injured.
In May this year, four armed men killed 22 people and wounded 25 others at a residential complex in the eastern city of Alkhobar.
Westerners have been the main targets of Al-Qaeda attacks in the Kingdom. Their most recent victim was Laurent Barbot, a 45-year-old employee of the French defense electronics firm Thales. He was shot dead on Sept. 25 in Jeddah. A Briton was gunned down in Riyadh on Sept. 15 and an Irish engineer was murdered in his office in the capital on Aug. 3.
In August, the Interior Ministry released new pictures of Munie and six others of the most wanted terrorists. The ministry has offered a reward of SR1 million for information leading to the capture of a wanted terrorist, SR5 million for information on a group of terrorists and SR7 million for information, which can be used to prevent a terrorist attack.
Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, who was No. 1 on the list and commander of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom, was killed by security forces along with three associates following a gunbattle in Riyadh on June 18.
