Saudi Al-Qaeda Chief Killed

(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) A fierce gun battle today in Riyadh has resulted in security forces killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

From Aljazeera.Net:

Yunis Muhammad Ibrahim al-Hayari, a Moroccan, was killed during a raid on Sunday by security forces on an area where suspected militants were hiding, an Interior Ministry official was quoted by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

The clashes took place in the Rawdah district, an upscale neighbourhood in eastern Riyadh, said Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Mansour al-Turki.

The unidentified official, quoted by SPA, said al-Hayari headed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network in the kingdom, which has been ravaged by attacks during more than two years of violence.

Interestingly, al-Hayari led the list of most wanted terrorists issued by the Saudi Interior Ministry on Tuesday. It's likely that the issuance of the list, along with a generous offer of rewards for information, led to the raids which resulted in al-Hayari's one-way ticket to the 72 virgins in fundamentalist Islamic heaven.

Could it be that average Saudi citizens, lured by reward money and disgusted by the indiscriminate killing of innocent bystanders, are now regularly notifying the authorities with information about the terrorists?

Companion post at The Jawa Report.