RIYADH, 9 December 2003 — One of the Kingdom’s most wanted terrorists was killed and another arrested following a shootout with security forces in Al-Suwaidy in south Riyadh yesterday.
An official from the Interior Ministry named the victim as Ibrahim ibn Mohammed ibn Abdullah Al-Rayyes, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
He was one of a list of 26 published this week who are sought by the security forces for their role in the Al-Muhaya suicide attacks on Nov. 8.
Security officials have offered a reward of between SR1 million and SR5 million for information leading to the arrest of terrorists.
Saudi journalist Muhammad Al-Humaidy said he witnessed security forces entering a house yesterday morning following a tip-off and combing it for armed suspects believed to be hiding there. An intense exchange of fire ensued as the house was raided.
During the confrontation, helicopters hovered overhead while armored vehicles backed up security forces including both police and regular army, drawing a large crowd of onlookers.
“I saw soldiers everywhere near my house early morning,” Al-Humaidy said. “Huge black tanks were also waiting behind a wall in the district. Till then everything was calm and peaceful. Then suddenly there was commotion, and fighting erupted.”
According to SPA, security officers tried to apprehend Al-Rayyes near a fuel station southwest of Riyadh. “But he started shooting at them,” an official source told SPA, “and died when the security officers returned fire.”
“When they searched Al-Rayyes, they found false documents and a hand grenade,” the official said. Three hand grenades, a machine gun, three pistols and a quantity of ammunition were later found at his home,” the source added.
The Al- Suwaidy district in early November was the scene of an overnight siege in which one terrorist was gunned down and eight security men wounded. At least five suspects were detained after massive security engagement.
A visit to the Al-Suwaidy district revealed that a majority of the residents there are poor and very conservative. Satellite dishes are a rare sight. According to Al-Humaidy, an estimated population of over half a million Saudis, most of them villagers from the surrounding areas, live in Al-Suwaidy, one of Riyadh’s biggest districts, comprising Sultana, Shubra, Badiya and Frahyan localities.
Details of Three Terrorists Released
Meanwhile, Al Watan newspaper released details of three terrorists — Saleh Al-Aufi, Ahmed Al-Fadhli and Moroccan Karim Al-Majati — on the wanted list. The newspaper quoted Al-Fadhli’s father Abdel Rahman as saying he had noticed a change in his son’s behavior two months ago, when Al-Fadhli told him he had been fired from his job as a security officer in Jeddah.
“I believed him when he told me, but then I was surprised the next morning when I found a letter from him telling me he had left to fight in Iraq,” Abdel Rahman said.
Sources close to Al-Aufi’s family said he had met with Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Omar shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Al-Aufi had discussed meeting the two leaders in August and September 2001 during his last reported stay in the Kingdom. The sources said he went to Afghanistan following the US-led attack on the country.
Al-Aufi was closely linked to other terrorists including Khaled Mohammed Al-Johani, who staged a suicide attack on a residential compound in Riyadh in May, according to the sources. Al-Aufi first went to Afghanistan in 1993.
“In 1995, he suddenly established a car dealership in Madinah and traveled to Germany through Dubai several times under cover of importing cars,” the source said. He did not rule out the possibility that Al-Aufi could have links with terrorist cells in Germany and that his business was a cover for money laundering.
Al-Aufi’s last visit to the Kingdom was said to be in late 2002 to attend his father’s funeral when he showed up disguised as a woman. However, his tribe rejected him because they said he incited extremist beliefs among its youth and recruited some to go to Afghanistan.
The third terrorist, according to Al-Watan, is Moroccan Karim Al-Majati, alias Abu Elias, Al-Tuhaimi, and Abu Ins, who is described by Saudi security as “one of the most dangerous terrorists.”
Al-Majati comes from a wealthy family and has a French mother and Moroccan father. He attended a French missionary school in Casablanca and is married to an American woman. Ahmad Al-Rafiqi, a terrorist friend of Al-Majati, who is serving a 10-year sentence in a prison in Casablanca, said Al-Majati spoke of targeting synagogues.
Security sources pointed out that Al-Majati and other terrorists trained in the woods outside the Moroccan capital Rabat and that Al-Majati also trained in Afghanistan. He is suspected of involvement in five terrorist attacks in May in Casablanca that claimed the lives of 44 people, including 11 suicide bombers.
