One of the Kingdom's most wanted terrorists suspected of recruiting foreign militants for the Al-Qaeda network in Iraq surrendered to Saudi authorities, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour Al-Turki announced Thursday. Fahd Reqad Samir Al-Ruweili, 31, who was on a list of the Kingdom's 85 most wanted militants living abroad, returned to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, said Al-Turki. It is thought that Al-Ruweili called his family from Iraq, revealing his desire to turn in. In a telephone conversation Friday with Okaz /Saudi Gazette Al-Turki categorically denied the involvement of a third party in his surrender. His relatives approached the responsible security authorities and coordinated his travel to the Kingdom, he said. “By the grace of Almighty Allah and the support of the families of the wanted the security authorities are capable of facilitating the return of fugitives to the country to surrender,” said the Ministry spokesman. Al-Turki encouraged other extremists to follow Al-Ruweili's example. He urged them “to return to their rational senses, end their transgressions and surrender themselves to the nearest Saudi representative, who will facilitate their return home to their families.” According to sources, Al-Reweili was born in Qatar in March 1977 and was closely linked to the Al-Qaeda. He was a key figure in Al-Qaeda training camps along Syria's border with Iraq. He provided fighters with weapons and forged travel documents to help them enter Iraq from Syria. Al-Ruweili left for Jordan on April 4, 2003, and settled in Syria. He was known in Al-Qaeda with the nickname Emir Al-Hedoud “Prince of Borders” as he was operating on the Iraqi-Syrian border. He succeeded in recruiting dozens if not hundreds of the brainwashed youth and masterminding their infiltration into Iraq through the Iraqi-Syrian border. The ministry's most wanted list of terrorist suspects includes 83 Saudis and two Yemenis. In February, a former Guantanamo prisoner, Mohammed Atiq Awayd Al-Awfi, turned himself in to the Yemeni authorities and was flown to Riyadh after his name appeared on the list. On March 15, Yemen announced that security forces had arrested another of those appearing on the list, Ali Abdullah Al-Harbi, in an operation in Taez, south of the Yemeni capital Sana'a. In January, the local Al-Qaeda branch announced in an Internet video the merging of the Saudi and Yemeni branches into “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” led by a Yemeni, Nasser Al-Wahaishi. US military commanders say one of the main conduits for foreign fighters entering Iraq to join forces with the local branch of Al-Qaeda is through Syria.
