Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin
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Abdel Aziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Muqrin (Arabic: عبد العزيز عيسى عبد المحسن المقرن ) (or Abd al-Aziz al-Moqrin or other transliterations) alias Abu Hajr ( ابو هاجر ) and Abu Hazim, (1972?-2004), was the leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He reportedly succeeded Yousif Salih Fahad Al-Ayeeri in this role, when the latter was killed in a shootout in May of 2003. Al-Muqrin had trained with Osama bin Laden's group in Afghanistan.
Al-Muqrin was #1 on Saudi Arabia's first official list[1] of most wanted terrorists, which appeared in December of 2003. In 2004 his faction claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Westerners including the kidnapping and beheading of American contractor Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia. Less than 48 hours after the murder of Johnson, Saudi police commandos killed al-Muqrin in a raid in downtown Riyadh, along with three associates: Faisal Abdul-Rahman al-Dikheel (who was also on the list), Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry, and Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Dreiham.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Interior Ministry publishes names of 26 wanted terrorist suspects, Embassy of Saudi Arabia to the USA, 6 December 2003
- ^ Saudi al-Qaeda vows to continue holy war, CBC, 19 June 2004
- Artist's rendering of al-Muqrin, originally from a Saudi wanted list
