Riyadh, 9 Nov. (AKI) - One of the 36 terror suspects on the Saudi interior ministry's last most wanted list has been repatriated to the kingdom. "Adnan ibn Abdullah ibn Fares Al-Amri, whose name appears on the list of wanted people, has been repatriated from abroad," a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by Saudi Press Agency. However, no details were given as to which country the 28-year-old terror suspect was repatriated from, or how he came to be caught and extradited. Issuing its third and latest most-wanted list at the end of June the interior ministry said 21 of the suspects were abroad. Since then, at least six have been killed, at least four are known to have been arrested and one was reported to have surrendered to the authorities.
Only one man is thought to be still at large from the second most-wanted list of 26 following the death of al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, Saleh al-Oufi, in a shootout that broke out during a police raid in the holy city of Medina. The lists were released as part of Saudi Arabia's battle against militants, who have carried out a series of attacks in the kingdom since May 2003. However, recently many have been killed in gun battles with the Saudi security forces.
This week the newly appointed Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, used a speech to the annual conference of the Middle East Institute (MEI) to condemn those who carry out terror acts and separate them from the religion in whose name they claim to act. "They violate the principle of humanity, and the teachings of their faith. They are criminals. Their twisted vision is a cancer in the body of Islam that must and will be excised and cast out," he said. He told the conference the terrorists' support networks must be cut off, and in order to do this, the "communities of the world must stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against these terrorist organisations, against those who support them and against those who condone their actions." He held up the US and Saudi Arabia's creation of two joint task forces to combat terrorism and terror financing as an example of how nations can work together to defeat terror.