It was a very successful year for the Kingdom’s anti-terror campaign. The country has won international recognition for its successful campaign against terrorism on both the domestic and international levels. This year the fight against terror took on a different aspect as security forces aimed at removing the root cause of the problem.
On Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004, Saudi security forces killed three terrorists and injured another in a gunbattle at a gas station in the Al-Deera district of Riyadh. The next day, Dec. 29, two car bombs exploded in the capital. Shortly after, Saudi security forces raided a terrorist hideout and killed seven, two of them were on the Kingdom’s list of the 26 most wanted terrorists. Thus 2004 ended with deadly confrontations between terrorists and security forces.
The first major incident of the new year was on Jan. 9 when four wanted militants were killed in a shootout with security forces. On Jan. 17, authorities announced that they managed to trace the explosives used in the car-bomb blasts which targeted the Interior Ministry and Special Forces to a house in a densely populated low-income suburb in Riyadh. When searching the house, police found the backseats of the two cars used in the attacks. The seats had been removed from the cars in order to provide space for explosives. Also in the house were communication equipment, a computer, live ammunition and women’s clothing as well as a number of documents.
On Jan. 30, Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Asheikh called upon religious scholars, intellectuals, academics and writers to stand together with the government in its fight against terrorism and extremism. “You have a great responsibility to enlighten youth so that they can confront deviant ideology,” the minister said. He also urged all Saudis and expatriates to support the security forces in their efforts to defeat the “deviant group” from achieving its twisted goals.
On Feb. 5, the country held the first conference on counterterrorism at the King Abdul Aziz Convention Center in Riyadh. Delegates from 49 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia, as well as representatives of several international organizations, attended. The conference emphasized the Saudi government’s call for joint international efforts to confront and root out terrorism; it discussed ways to eradicate the root causes of global terrorism and measures to help tackle money laundering as well as drug and arms smuggling. King Abdullah opened the conference with a call for a global center to combat and pre-empt terrorism. In his keynote speech outlining his anti-terror strategy, King Abdullah said: “We are currently in a war with terror and with anyone who backs it or justifies it.”
On March 11, Saudi security forces arrested 18 suspected terrorists in the northern town of Zulfi, about 280 km north of Riyadh. Seventeen Saudis and an Afghan were arrested in the 24-hour operation. Two days later, in an early morning gunbattle in Jeddah’s Al-Rabwa district, security forces captured two wanted militants, injured one and killed a man who was with them. A woman passerby was caught in the crossfire and died of her wounds.
On April 5, some 15 suspected terrorists, including the Kingdom’s most wanted Al-Qaeda leaders, were shot dead and five others wounded after three days of fierce clashes in Al-Rass, 320 km northwest of Riyadh. It was the worst confrontation between security forces and armed militants in the Kingdom since the war on terror began. The terrorists used rocket-propelled grenades and explosives. One of those killed was identified as Saud Al-Otaibi, the leader of the Al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia, and another as Moroccan Abdul Kareem Al-Majati, No. 4 on the list of 26; his son, Adam, was also killed in the operation. Al-Otaibi had taken over leadership of the Al-Qaeda cell after the death last year of Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, No. 1 on the list. Al-Otaibi was responsible for bombings, including the attack on the Al-Muhayya Housing Compound in Riyadh in 2003.
On May 9, Abdul Aziz ibn Rasheed Al-Anazi, a Saudi, was captured after being injured by security forces in a gunbattle. The suspect was one of the promoters of deviant ideology. He had a major role in promoting takfeer ideology (branding other Muslims as infidels) and was a member of the so-called religious committee in the deviant group. An official statement from the Interior Ministry said: “Because the suspect had a university degree in religious studies, his colleagues made him a major promoter of their perverted ideology and used his statements to justify their criminal acts.” According to the ministry, Al-Anazi used the Internet to publish his statements; he was not, however, on the most wanted list.
On June 18, gunmen shot dead a senior security officer, Lt. Col. Mubarak Al-Sawat, outside his house in Makkah. Within two days, Saudi security had tracked down the murderers and shot them dead. They were identified as Kamal Sami Ahmed Foudah and Mansour Mustafa Al-Thubaity. They were members of the “deviant” group. The hunt for Al-Sawat’s murderers continued as the Interior Ministry announced that security forces had detained a number of suspects in connection with the officer’s murder.
On June 28, Saudi Arabia issued a new list of 36 suspects believed to be linked to terrorist attacks all over the country. Rewards of up to SR7 million ($1.87 million) were offered for the capture of terrorists or for preventing a planned attack. The new list was announced only days after a report that one of the last remaining militants from the original 26 — Abdullah Al-Rashoud — had been killed in Iraq.
A few days later on July 1, a militant who was on the new list of 36 surrendered to Saudi security authorities amid press reports that three others on the list had died in Iraq. The Interior Ministry confirmed that Fayez Ibrahim Ayub, No. 29 on the list, had surrendered to authorities after returning from abroad.
On July 3, the man alleged to be the leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Younus Muhammad Al-Hayari, was shot dead by security forces in Riyadh. Al-Hayari, a Moroccan, was No. 1 on the new list of 36 wanted terrorists. Al-Hayari was killed “during a gunbattle with security forces after they raided his hideout in a Riyadh neighborhood,” an Interior Ministry official said. Six policemen were slightly wounded in the clash.
On July 26, security forces arrested four suspects, one of whom was on the list of 36. Muhammad ibn Saeed Al-Siyam Al-Amri, 25, was arrested in Madinah after a tip-off from citizens. Two of his associates were also arrested. When security forces caught him, he was carrying a pipe bomb, the ministry said.
On Aug. 5, police seized weapons and explosives from an abandoned well during a raid in Kuraidah, south of Madinah. Police described the operation as a great success which prevented a terrorist attack when the government was busy with security arrangements for King Fahd’s funeral. The police did not rule out the possibility that the weapons had been hidden by Saleh Al-Oufi, one of the original 26 most wanted terrorists. On Aug. 19, the ministry announced the death of Al-Oufi, 39, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He was shot dead by security forces and his death, along with three other terrorists including Majed ibn Hamid Al-Hasry, dealt a heavy blow to the militant network in the Kingdom. The armed confrontation also resulted in the death of Muhammad ibn Abdullah Owaida plus the arrest of 10 terror suspects. Some on the list of 36 are reported to have died fighting with anti-US insurgents in Iraq but this has not been officially confirmed.
On Aug. 22, King Abdullah commended the country’s security forces and also praised citizens for their united stand against terrorists. Addressing the Cabinet, the king called for joint international efforts to deal with all forms of terrorism.
On Aug. 26, Saudi Arabia announced that security forces had prevented a major terrorist attack in Riyadh and that 41 terror suspects of various nationalities had been arrested.
On Sept. 6, security forces stormed a major Al-Qaeda hideout in Dammam, killing all five terrorists inside. Four security men were also killed in the operation and ten were wounded. The raid took place in the Al-Hamra district of Dammam.
On Sept. 8, the ministry announced that the five militants killed in Dammam were on the list of 36. They were identified as Zaid ibn Saad Al-Samari, 31; Saleh ibn Mansour Al-Fareedi, 22; Sultan ibn Saleh Al-Hasry, 26; Naif ibn Farhan Al-Jehaishy, 24; and Muhammad ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, 23. They were apparently planning a major terrorist attack in the city.
A statement by the Interior Ministry described Al-Samari as one of the ideologues of the Al-Qaeda terror network in the Kingdom, adding that he had received military training in Afghanistan and had taken part in a terrorist operation in Riyadh last year which targeted expatriates. The ministry called Al-Fareedi an explosives expert, adding that he had been involved in two terrorist attacks on security forces.
Al-Hasry was wanted for his involvement in the kidnapping and killing of an expatriate who may have been the American engineer Paul Johnson. Paul was kidnapped and beheaded in June 2004. Al-Jehaishy, the statement said, was known as a expert forger “who moved from one hideout to another, taking part in various terrorist operations.” Al-Suwailemi had taken part in an attack on a security patrol in Riyadh, the ministry said. He also provided logistic support to militants and recruited young Saudis to the terror network.
On Sept. 23, King Abdullah urged suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the Kingdom to surrender and return to the right path. “This cherished national occasion offers an opportunity for those affiliated to the deviant group to review their stand and surrender to security authorities,” he said at a Cabinet meeting.
Also on Sept. 23, it was announced that a week earlier Saudi Arabia had provided the names of 18 of its most wanted terror suspects to Interpol and asked the international agency to trace them, a senior security official said. Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Obaishi, a senior security official who is head of Interpol in the Kingdom, commented: “We provided 18 names and we believe that most of them are outside Saudi Arabia.”
On Oct. 23, in Riyadh, security forces arrested 13 suspects believed to be Al-Qaeda members. One of those arrested was reportedly the brother of an Al-Qaeda militant whose name was on the list of 36. “The suspects, including a 13-year-old boy, were in a building in the Naseem district of Riyadh. Security forces detained a suspect on the Riyadh-Makkah highway near the village of Ruwaida and he eventually told them the address of the building where the suspects were later arrested. This is the first incident in which a group, mainly composed of young suspects below 16, have been arrested,” press reports said.
On Oct. 31, following raids in Madinah and Zulfi, security forces arrested two militants. Informed sources said that neither was on the list of 36. The arrests took place after two men shot a policeman on the outskirts of Makkah when more than 1.5 million people were in the holy city to pray at the Grand Mosque on the most important night in Ramadan. The two men opened fire on a police patrol, which had flagged down their car for a routine check, a security source said. He identified the slain police officer as Muhammad Al-Zahrani.
An Interior Ministry official announced on Dec. 3 that security forces had detained 17 terror suspects, including some linked to Al-Qaeda, in dawn raids in Riyadh, Al-Kharj and Majmaa. “All the suspects were Saudi,” the announcement said. “Some of those arrested took part in the activities of the deviant group (Al-Qaeda) while others are suspected of cooperating and sympathizing with its perverse ideas,” said the official.
On Dec. 28, the anniversary of last year’s terrorist events, Abdul Rahman ibn Saleh Al-Miteb was gunned down in Qassim region on Wednesday. The day before, his associate was also gunned down in a shootout that took the lives of five policemen.
