Marawani, the head of security in the Abyan province of Yemen, has said that Saeed Al-Shehri, the Saudi national and “second man” in the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Organization, was killed last week. No confirmation has been given by Saudi authorities. Al-Shehri, who occupies number 31 on the Saudi Ministry of Interior's Feb. 2009 list of 85 wanted terrorists, is one of the most sought-after terrorists by Saudi and Yemeni authorities. Al-Watan Arabic daily reported Monday that Abdul Razzaq Al-Marawani said Al-Shehri was killed at the end of the last week in Lawdar where Yemeni forces have been carrying long-running campaigns against the organization. “We have confirmation that Al-Shehri was killed in Lawdar in Abyan,” Al-Watan reported him as saying. No one else was reported killed along with Al-Shehri, Al-Marawani added. Al-Watan said that both Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior and Ali Al-Hamdan, the Saudi ambassador in Yemen, said they had no information to either confirm or deny Al-Shehri's death, a situation that remained unchanged as of Monday evening. Saudi Gazette reported Monday that foreign news agencies had quoted a “Saudi official” as saying that Al-Shehri had died on Al-Abyadh Mountain in Lawdar, north Abyan, while preparing explosives. The reports also claimed that five other Al-Qaeda members were injured in the incident. Saeed Al-Shehri entered Yemeni territory shortly before he was named as number 31 on the Saudi Ministry of Interior's list of 85 wanted terrorists in February, 2009. He had been put through the Al-Munasaha terrorist rehabilitation program after returning from Guantanamo Detention Center in Cuba, only to later found with the Yemeni Nasser Al-Wuhaishi the so-called Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula. In response to the reports, Al-Shehri's father, Ali Bin Jabir Al-Shehri, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette by telephone that he had not received any official news of his son's death. Asked if he and his family were planning funeral rites for Al-Shehri, Ali Bin Jabir replied: “We haven't received any confirmation yet of his death, but if that is what has happened, then so be it. He is a deviant and renegade of his religion and country's leaders. He accused me of being an infidel before he left for Yemen.” Sheikh Fahd Bin Tahir Bin Da'bash, sheikh of the Aal Waleed tribes to which Al-Shehri belonged, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the deceased “represents no one but himself”. “What happened to him is the fate of anyone how deserts his people and nation,” Sheikh Da'bash said. “What he did was disobedience to the country that raised him, sheltered him and bestowed its blessings on him.” He added that the half a million-strong Bani Shehr tribal grouping of which Aal Waleed are a part, “condemn the despicable things he did”. “We are fully behind our country and its leaders, and we stand as one with the people of this nation in the face of the corrupt and deviant,” he said. The capture or death of Saeed Al-Shehri was one of the highest priorities for security forces in the Kingdom and Yemen. Apart from his status in founding the so-called “Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula” which sought to use Yemen as a launch pad for attacks on the Kingdom, Al-Shehri also had a significant impact on finding new members. Saudi Gazette reported in 2010 that he was instrumental in recruiting women to the organization, among them Haila Al-Qusayyer, who was detained by security forces in Buraidah in Al-Qassim in March of last year. Al-Shehri reportedly involved her in collecting funds for Al-Qaeda, and was believed to be planning to marry her once she had joined him in Yemen. Al-Shehri was married to Wafa Al-Shehri, and he assigned her brother, Yousuf Al-Shehri, and Ra'ed Al-Harbi to operations targeting senior figures in the Kingdom. Both were killed at a checkpoint at Hamra Al-Darb in Jizan on Oct. 13, 2009.
