RIYADH, July 3: Saudi Arabia’s security forces killed one of the most wanted militants, Yunus Mohammad Al-Hayyari, during an encounter with militants in the Al-Rawdah area here on Sunday.

Some militants were injured during the clash. Six of the security operatives also received light injuries.

Weapons, telecomm devices, computers and documents and publications were recovered from the militants’ hideouts.

Al-Rawdah is an upscale neighbourhood in eastern Riyadh where ‘the clash took place after security forces raided an area where suspected militants were thought to be hiding’, interior ministry spokesman Brig Mansour al-Turki said.

The dead militant, Younus Al-Hayyari, a 36-year-old Moroccan, was on top of the list of the kingdom’s 36 most wanted men, announced last week.

He was reported to have entered Saudi Arabia on a Hajj visa in 2,001 with his Bosnian wife and on a Bosnian passport. He was reportedly close to slain Al Qaeda militant Al-Majati, also of Moroccan origin.

Al-Hayyari was currently the operational head of Al Qaeda in the kingdom.

The interior ministry announcement said security forces carried out two operations in east Riyadh after being tipped off about the presence of the militants.

“At the first place, two persons were captured without offering any resistance, but the security forces faced gunfire and hand grenades at the second place. The clash at the second place led to killing of Al-Hayyari and arrest of another person,” the announcement added.

Last week, Saudi Arabia issued a new list of wanted Al Qaeda suspects, most of whom are Saudis but some are from Chad, Yemen, Morocco and Mauritania. Fifteen of them are believed to be at large inside Saudi Arabia and 21 outside the kingdom.

All but two men on a previous list of 26 wanted militants, published in December 2003, are believed dead or in custody.

Saudi Arabia has been battling suspected al Qaeda militants since May 2003, when they launched their campaign of violence with triple suicide bombings at expatriate housing compounds in the Riyadh, Reuters adds.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said the operation was the result of extensive surveillance by Saudi security forces, and pledged to pursue other suspected militants.

Al Qaeda is fighting to expel non-Muslims from the Gulf state.