Saudi list of most wanted suspected terrorists

Earlier lists

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.

List of December 6, 2003

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.

List of June 28, 2005

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.

List of February 3, 2009

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.

The Saudi Gazette reported that Saudi security officials identified an individual named Saleh Al-Qaraawi as the leader of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

An article published in Asharq Alawsat on February 6, 2009, noted the range in age among the suspects—from seventeen to fifty-two. This article named Abdullah El Qarawi, who it described as the "most dangerous" individual on the list, as the leader of Al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf. According to the article Abdullah El Qarawi is just 26 years old, and most of the individuals on the list are between 25 and 25. The article listed the names and ages of fifteen other individuals.

Another article in the Asharq Alawsat identified other individual from the list, including: Abdullah al-Abaed—wanted for the assassination of a senior police official, and Mohamed Abul-Khair, one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, and one of his sons-in-law.

On February 7, 2009 the Saudi Gazette reported some details of some of the wanted men. The article named seven men it identified as former Guantanamo captives, and five other most wanted suspected terrorists it did not identify as former Guantanamo captives.

Suspects who remain at large, or otherwise unaccounted for

Hani Al Mubarak the flight student from Saudi Arabia has been located by Kimberly Zechman Webster in Jeddah Saudi Arabia

According to the Agence France Presse the SPA News Agency reported on May 23, 2009 that three Saudis suspected of ties to Al Qaida returned to Saudi Arabia and turned themselves in to authorities. The Arab News reported the identities of the three men were not made public, but that they had not been listed on the February 2009 most-wanted list. The Saudi Gazette reported that only two of the men voluntarily surrendered and that the third man was captured in Yemen.

On October 19, 2010, when reporting the surrender of Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi and Badr Mohammed Nasser al-Shihri the Associated Press asserted that 70 of the original 85 men named on the list remained at large or unaccounted for.