Saad B. Al-Matrafi, saad@arabnews.com If it is confirmed that two leading figures — Saud Al-Otaibi (Saudi) and Abdul Kareem Al-Majati (Moroccan) — from among the 26 announced wanted terrorists in the Kingdom were killed in Al-Rass, then that may mean a huge change in the status of the terrorist organization in the Gulf and might put an end to what was once an organized group.
| Oh, I doubt it. In an organization where human life means nothing, they can always come up with another mastermind. They may even luck out and get somebody competent... |
As the No. 1 spokesman of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom through the organization's two electronic magazines, Nashrat Al-Battar and Sawt Al-Jihad, and because he belonged to one of the largest and best known families in the Kingdom, it was expected that Al-Otaibi would be a leading figure in the organization. In the past two years, Al-Qaeda had three ideologues, Faris Al-Zahrani, Issa Al-Oushin and Abdullah Al-Rashood, who played the role of the organization's official scholars. Al-Rashood is known as an aggressive spokesman who has several times verbally attacked Saudi religious scholars in their presence and blasted them for what he called silence regarding the truth. Al-Rashood is believed to be still at large.