BOSNIAN CITIZEN IS NEW LEADER OF AL-QA'IDAH IN SAUDI ARABIA - DAILY
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 30, 2005

Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Banja Luka, 30 June: The [Kingdom of] Saudi Arabia Interior Ministry has issued a new list of the 36 most wanted militants suspected of carrying out numerous attacks on Saudi Arabia and other states, including Younes Mohamed Brahim Hayari, a Bosnia-Hercegovina [BiH] citizen of Moroccan origin, today's Nezavisne novine says.

Citing an anonymous security source, the Banja Luka daily says that it has been assessed that 36-year-old Hayari is the new leader of Al-Qa'idah in Saudi Arabia.

"This is a exceptionally well-trained militant who gained his battle experience in Bosnia-Hercegovina. According to some sources, Hayari possesses a BiH passport which he used to enter the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, He is married to a BiH citizen with whom he has a child. The woman and child are together with him," the source says.

A high-level official in the BiH Civil Affairs Ministry, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed to Nezavisne novine that Hayari was a Bosnia-Hercegovina citizen who possesses a BiH passport, although the details as to how, where and on what basis he obtained it will be known today.

The BiH deputy security minister, Dragan Mektic, could not confirm whether the BiH authorities had any information on the possible connection of Hayari with the most well-known terrorist network in the world.

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0706 gmt 30 Jun 05

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