Saudis net most-wanted terror suspect

AP, Cairo, Egypt
Saudi police arrested a top Saudi terror suspect, officials said yesterday, weeks after the cleric reassured followers he was "taking all necessary precautions" to evade a government sweep.

Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani was No. 12 on the kingdom's list of 26 most-wanted terror suspects. All those ahead of him, and several others on the list, have been either killed or captured in a crackdown that followed a series of bombings in Riyadh in May, 2003.

Police captured al-Zahrani and a second suspect on Thursday night, an unidentified Interior Ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency. The second suspect's name was not released.

The official described al-Zahrani as "a preacher of denouncing people as infidels." Islamic militants often label their enemies as infidels before they attack them. Al-Zahrani and the second suspect were detained "swiftly and efficiently," and were not able to use the weapons they were carrying, the official said.