Mishal Al-Otaibi
Saudi Gazette
RIYADH — Nine Saudis involved in the August 2015 attack on a mosque used by Interior Ministry special forces in Abha are still on the run, an Interior Ministry security spokesman announced here on Sunday.
Eleven security men and four Bangladeshi workers were killed and 33 others were injured when a suicide bomber struck the mosque in the headquarters of the Special Emergency Force in Abha, the capital of Asir province.
The ministry also revealed the details of the various stages suicide bomber Yousuf Sulaiman Abdullah Al-Sulaiman, a Saudi national, passed through prior to the attack.
The spokesman said that anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of any one of the wanted terrorists will be rewarded with SR1 million, as per the Royal Decree issued on Nov. 20, 2003. The reward increases to SR5 million if more than one wanted persons are arrested. The reward reaches SR7 million if the information provided helps in foiling a terrorist attack.
The ministry also revealed identities of those who were accomplices in the Abha mosque attack who included a soldier named Salah Al-Shahrani.
Suicide bomber Al-Sulaiman had connections with the terrorist group, two hide-outs of which which were busted in Al-Mounisiya district of Riyadh and in Dhrumah governorarte. The terrorist group provided him shelter in an apartment in Al-Falah district when he came to Riyadh from Al-Jouf.
After this apartment was busted by the security forces, Al-Sulaiman’s helpers shifted him to another location in Dhrumah where he was given training on wearing and using explosive belts.
After his training, Al-Sulaiman was shifted from Riyadh to Asir by Saudi national Fahad Falah Al-Harbi, whose arrest was announced on Sept. 29, 2015.
On the day of the bombing Al-Sulaiman was taken to the mosque by a soldier in the Special Emergency Force in Asir named Salah Al-Shahrani, who was influenced by the deviant ideology of his wanted uncle Saeed Ayedh Saeed Al-Daer Al-Shahrani.
Salah Al-Shahrani betrayed his fellow security men by helping the terrorist. He was later arrested along with two other Saudi nationals — Fuad Muhammad Yahya Al-Dahawi and Saleh Fahad Dhakeel Al-Diraan — who were involved in the Abha mosque attack. Nine other Saudi nationals involved in the attack are in hiding, said the Interior Ministry spokesman.
