Manama: Saudi Arabia has offered rewards of up to SR 5 million to anyone who provides information that would lead to the arrest of one of nine suspects wanted in connection with the suicide bombing inside a mosque in Aseer.
The authorities said they would give SR 1 million for information that would net one of the suspects, but the figure would be increased to SR 7 million if two or more suspects are arrested.
A reward of SR 7 million will be offered if a terrorist attack is foiled, the interior ministry said on Sunday afternoon.
The ministry gave the name of the seven suspects, all Saudi nationals, saying they were fugitives wanted in connection with the bombing in August of the mosque of Special Emergency Forces Centre in Asir in which 11 security officers and four Bangladeshi employees were killed, and 33 were injured.
The nine fugitives wanted by Saudi Arabia
The interior ministry on Sunday said that following an extensive investigation, it concluded that the suicide bomber Yousuf Sulaiman Abdullah Al Sulaiman, a Saudi national, was connected with the terrorist group who offered him accommodation when he arrived from Al Jouf in the northern part of the kingdom to the capital Riyadh. He was later transferred to Dharma, 75 kilometres northwest of Riyadh, where he trained on wearing and using the explosives belt. He also recorded a voice message to be broadcast following the attack, the ministry said.
The bomber was then taken by Fahad Falah Al Harbi to Asir, southwest of the country, where he joined a terror group led by Saeed Ayedh Al Shahrani, a Saudi national.
The ministry added that Al Harbi, accompanied by his wife Abeer Mohammad Abdullah Al Harbi, also a Saudi national, transported the explosives belt in his car from Riyadh to Asir. The husband used his wife to conceal the belt.
On the day of the attack, the bomber put on the belt and headed towards the Special Emergency Forces Centre, assisted by Salah Ali Al Shahrani, a soldier stationed there and also a member of the terror group.
The soldier had been strongly influenced by the deviant ideology of his uncle and opted to betray his fellow servicemen and his country, the ministry said.
Although he initially covered up his crime, the soldier was eventually arrested alongside two other people implicated in the terror crime, Fuad Mohammad Yahya Al Dahwi and Saleh Fahad Al Daraan, both Saudi nationals, the ministry said.
