Saudi Arabia says kills top al Qaeda militant

RIYADH, Monday (Reuters) Saudi Arabia's security forces killed the man at the top of its list of most wanted al Qaeda leaders in a clash in Riyadh on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

Moroccan national Younis Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hayyari, accused of involvement in a series of attacks in the world's biggest oil exporter, died after exchanging fire and hurling hand grenades at police, the ministry said.

Hayyari topped a list of 36 al Qaeda suspects released by Riyadh last week. The ministry said he had helped prepare explosives and played a part in several attacks in Saudi Arabia.

"He was recently nominated by his colleagues to be the leader of strife and corruption in the land after the death of his predecessors," the statement said.

A senior Saudi official described Hayyari, 36, who reportedly fought in Bosnia in the 1990s and came to Saudi Arabia in 2001, as a shadowy figure who was "more of a strategic leader than field commander".

He was a link to al Qaeda outside Saudi Arabia, brought funds into the kingdom, and was friend to a Muslim scholar close to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zaraqawi, the official said.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Sunday's operation was the result of extensive surveillance by Saudi security forces, and he pledged to pursue other suspected militants. "God willing, we will reach the rest using the same method," he said after seeing wounded security officers.

De facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah told U.S. President George W. Bush in an Independence Day message that Saudi Arabia was determined to "work with its friends to uproot all factors of destruction and terrorism".