Sources have confirmed that Aqil Amish Aqil Al-Mutairi, number 57 on the Ministry of Interior Feb. 2009 list of 85 wanted terror suspects abroad who turned himself in to authorities last Wednesday, had arranged his return to the Kingdom from neighboring Iraq. Ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki announced Sunday that Al-Mutairi had arrived in Saudi Arabia last Wednesday after expressing a wish to return to his home country and family, making him the fourth suspect on the list to surrender after Fahd Al-Ruwaili, Fawaz Al-Otaibi, and Muhammad Al-Oufi, who returned from Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen respectively. Al-Mutairi was permitted to meet with his family upon his return and remain with them for “several days”. Al-Mutairi, said to be 36 years of age, hails from the town of Al-Bikairiyah in Qassim, and had been employed at Saudi Electricity Company. He reportedly had contact with Saleh Al-Oufi, who was killed in clashes with security forces in Madina in 2005, and was detained for several months before returning to work, only to leave for Iraq soon after where he joined up with Al-Qaeda. Al-Mutairi's surrender follows the April 18 killings in Baghdad of Al-Qaeda leaders Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub Al-Masri, and is believed by some analysts to reflect the terrorist organization's inability to cope without its leadership, suggesting that Al-Mutairi had few other options before him. Al-Baghdadi and Al-Masri were believed to have direct links with Osama Bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi being the political leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, while Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant, was the group's self-styled “minister of war.” Interior Ministry spokesman Al-Turki said on Sunday that Al-Mutairi would be “handled according to procedures applied in such cases and his initiation of the move will be taken in consideration”, and reiterated the ministry's call for wanted persons to hand themselves in and avail themselves of its surrender conditions.
