JEDDAH: Saudi security forces have announced the arrest of one of their top terrorist targets. Sources said that Mohammed Hussein Al-Ammar was captured in Qatif on Tuesday morning without any shots being fired, after information was received confirming his location.
He was on a “most-wanted” list of nine terror suspects issued by the Ministry of Interior and the state security services on May 1, 2017. They are all accused of security-related crimes, including targeting citizens, residents and security officers, vandalizing public, security and economic facilities, and causing disruption in Qatif and Dammam. Al-Ammar is the only person on the list to be captured alive so far; of the rest, five have been killed and three remain free.
Al-Ammar is considered one of the most dangerous terrorists on the list. His alleged crimes include involvement in the kidnapping and killing of Judge Mohammed Al-Jarani, thefts, several armed attacks on security officers, the targeting of a security patrol, armed robberies, and throwing Molotov cocktails at a government building.
In addition, he is accused of taking part in armed raids on armored cars in Qatif and Al-Majidiyah, including one in which a security guard was killed and another wounded. Al-Ammar and another man on the most-wanted list, Maitham Ali Muhammad Al-Qudaihi, also allegedly targeted a security patrol that was protecting mosques in Qatif.
FASTFACT
Out of the nine wanted men on the 2017 list, only three remain at large.
Judge Al-Jirani was kidnapped in December 2016 outside his home in the town of Tarout. His kidnappers killed him and hid the body in an abandoned farm area known as Salihiya. His remains were discovered after an extensive search operation lasting more than a year. He had been shot in the chest. Investigators concluded that the kidnappers had tortured him, dug a grave, put him in it, then shot him and buried the body.
Security expert Fayez Al-Shahrani said that the arrest of Al-Ammar marks a big victory for the security forces in their efforts to disband Iran-funded terrorist cells in Qatif, because he is likely to have information that could help capture the remaining suspects on the wanted list: Ali Bilal Saud Al-Hamad, Maitham bin Ali Mohammed Al-Qudaihi and Ayman Ibrahim Hassan Al-Mukhtar.
The suspects on the list who have been killed are: Jaafar bin Hassan Makki Al-Mubaireek, Mufeed Hamza bin Ali Al-Alwan, Majid bin Ali Abdulrahim Al-Faraj, Hassan Mahmoud Ali Abdullah and Fadel Abdullah Mohammed Al-Hamada.
With the exception of Ali Abdullah, who was Bahraini, all of those on the list are or were Saudi nationals.
