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Saudi Arabia names 16 suspects in mosque attacks | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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File photo of suspects wanted by Saudi Interior Ministry. (SPA)


A photo, issued by Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry on June 3, 2015, shows the suspects wanted in connection with two recent suicide bomb attacks on Shi'ite mosques in the Kingdom. (Saudi Press Agency)

A photo, issued by Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry on June 3, 2015, shows the suspects wanted in connection with two recent suicide bomb attacks on Shi’ite mosques in the Kingdom. (Saudi Press Agency)

Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry has issued a list of suspects wanted in connection with an attack on a Shi’ite mosque in Dammam in the Eastern Province, offering a reward of 5 million Saudi Riyals to information leading to the arrest of the 16 suspects.

“Following an investigation into the schemes of this deviant group destined to undermine the security of this country and its citizens . . .The competent authorities have been able to obtain important information about parties having varying links with those elements and tragic criminal acts which necessitate that these parties be brought urgently in front of the security authorities,” a Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman said in comments to the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The SPA report confirmed that the 16 men are wanted in connection with a suicide attack on a Shi’ite mosque in the eastern city of Dammam on Friday and an attack one week earlier on a Shi’ite mosque in the eastern Al-Qatif governorate that killed 21 worshipers in the midst of Friday prayers, as well as a previous attack on a security patrol.

“Deviant group” is Saudi state terminology for Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS had claimed responsibility for both attacks, amid heightened security across the Kingdom ahead of Friday prayers.

The Interior Ministry called on the named Saudi nationals to hand themselves in to their local authorities in order to “clarify” the charges against them, while also offering rewards of up to one million Saudi riyals for information leading to the arrest of any of the wanted men. “The reward increases to five million Saudi Riyals in the case of the arrest of more than one wanted man and to five million Saudi Riyals in the case of the thwarting of a terrorist operation,” the Saudi official added.

The names of those wanted are listed as:

1- Ibrahim Yousef Ibrahim Al-Wazzan.
2- Ahmed Salim Ahmed Al-Halif Al-Ghamdi.
3- Bassam Mansour Hamad Al-Yahya.
4- Hassan Faraj Mohammed Al-Qarqah Al-Qahtani.
5- Hassan Hamid Hassan Al-Waibari Al-Shammari.
6- Said Falah Ayedh Al Rashid.
7- Sultan Abdulaziz Ali Al-Husseini Al-Shihri.
8- Sweilem Al-Hadi Sweilem Al-Qai’qai’ Al-Ruwaili.
9- Abdulrahman Mohammed Ali Al-Bakri Al-Shihri.
10- Abdul Rahim Abdullah Omar Al-Mutlaq.
11- Abdul Hadi Moaidh Abdul Hadi Al-Masradi Al-Qahtani.
12- Faisal Mohammed Saeed Al-Hamid Al-Zahrani.
13- Mohsen Mohammed Mohsen Al-Osaimi Al-Otaibi.
14- Mohammed Suleiman Rahian Al-Saqri Al-Anzi.
15- Mohamed Awadh Saeed Al-Fahmi Al-Zahrani.
16- Hisham Fahd Mohammed Al-Khudair.