Saudi officials arrest top target on terror list

Saudi security authorities have announced the arrest of one of their top terrorist targets in the country. Wanted for several offences including the kidnapping of a judge and armed robbery, the wanted man, known as Muhammad Bin Hussein Ali Aal Ammar, was captured yesterday in Al-Qatif, a province in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Ammar is considered of the most dangerous terrorists in the list. He was involved in the kidnapping of a Shia judge, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Jirani, in December 2016. Saudi officials offered up to five million riyals ($1.3 million) for information leading to his arrest and nine other terror suspects named by the Ministry of Interior and the state security services in 2017.

All nine suspects were accused of security-related crimes, including targeting citizens, residents and security officers, vandalising public, security and economic facilities, and causing disruption in Qatif and Dammam.

READ: Saudi police arrest 3 people over kidnapping of Shia judge

Al-Ammar is said to be the only person on the list to be captured alive so far; of the remaining eight, five have been killed and three remain on the run.

Al-Qatif, where Al-Ammar and his gang carried out their crimes, is home to about one million mostly Shia Muslims and is located in the oil-producing Eastern Province. Since 2011 it has been shaken by frequent protests, mostly peaceful, though Shia militants angry at what they say is repression of their community have sometimes attacked security forces in the area.