Saudi lists 47 wanted Qaeda suspects abroad

Daily Times
* Interior Ministry says suspects hold senior functions inside al Qaeda

* 27 last reported to be in Pakistan, Afghanistan

* Goals include establishing terrorism cells inside kingdom

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has issued global arrest warrants for 47 suspected al Qaeda militants believed to be hiding in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq who it said had tried to build cells inside the top oil exporter. 

Some of the 47 Saudis, whose pictures were shown and names read out on state television, hold senior functions inside al Qaeda, the Saudi Interior Ministry said on Sunday. 

“Authorities have identified 47 wanted Saudis who are abroad and who adopt the deviant ideology,” the ministry said. 

“One of their goals is to establish terrorism cells inside the kingdom and recruit Saudis to send abroad for training,” Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Turki told reporters.

The announcement follows Saudi Arabia’s arrest of 149 militants in November suspected of running 19 cells to prepare attacks in the kingdom and send militants to training camps in neigbouring Yemen and Somalia. 

Some of the 47 wanted men, all described as “very dangerous”, had connections with the 149 previously arrested, Turki said. 

Sixteen of the wanted suspects had left Saudi Arabia for Yemen, while 27 were last reported to be in Pakistan or Afghanistan and four in Iraq, the ministry said. The average age of the suspects was 26. 

The interior ministry said that it has passed the list to the international police, Interpol, and advised the suspects to hand themselves in at Saudi embassies “to repatriate them and reunite them with their families”. 

This was the fifth in a series of lists of people with suspected al Qaeda links to be released so far by the Saudi interior ministry. 

Saudi militants linked to al Qaeda launched a wave of attacks against Westerners and government installations between 2003 and 2006 before coming under a severe crackdown by the authorities. 

Many are believed to be active in neighbouring Yemen after the merger of the Saudi and Yemeni al Qaeda front groups in the two countries under the banner of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is based in Yemen. 

The Saudi Justice Ministry announced on Saturday that by the end of November 765 people suspected of links to al Qaeda have been tried and sentenced, although it did not mention any verdicts.