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Saudi Arabia: 11 Ex-Guantanamo Detainees Included in Saudi Most Wanted List | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued on Wednesday a list of 85 suspected militants wanted all over the world, the list includes 11 Saudi Arabian former Guantanamo detainees, and two Yemenis.

General Mansour Al Turki, the security spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry informed Asharq Al-Awsat that 11 names on the list belong to Saudi Arabians who have been released from Guantanamo Bay detention center.

The new wanted list is comprised of 85 names, includes members of Al Qaeda in Yemen, whose ranks include two former Guantanamo Bay detainees, Abu Sufyan Al Azdi Al Shahri and Abu Al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, who returned to Riyadh [from Guantanamo] in November 2007.

Al Shahri [who was recently revealed to be the second-in-command of Al Qaeda in Yemen] and Al Oufi [Al Qaeda in Yemen’s field commander] both recently appeared in a video in which they swore allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and said that they would continue to [fight] “holy war”

The Saudi Most Wanted list also includes two Yemenis who are commanders of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Abu Baser Al Naser Al Wahshi, a Yemeni national and the group’s leader, and Abu Hureira Al Rimi, the group’s military commander, are being sought by Saudi authorities. The two men appeared in the same video as Al Shahri and Al Oufi.

General Mansour Al Turki informed Asharq Al-Awsat via telephone that he had forwarded the Saudi most wanted list to Interpol, and had advised all nations of the world as to the list’s content.

The list which was announced by the Saudi Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday is the fourth list of its kind to be issued by the Saudi security authorities. The previous most wanted lists were comprised of 19, 26, and 36 names respectively. The current number of people the Saudi authorities is able to identify as having linked to terrorism has increased to 166.

A statement issued by the Saudi Ministry of the Interior along with the list called for a crackdown on terrorism, saying that “One of the favours bestowed by Allah Almighty upon the Saudi Muslim community is that He has unveiled the reality of erroneous thought and the objectives the symbols of sedition pursue to achieve”

The statement continued that “these symbols of sedition” i.e. the high command of Al Qaeda and its members in the region are “exploiting the religious tendencies of this blessed country’s citizens in order to employ them treacherously and serve the enemies of our creed of tolerance and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]”