Saudis: Top terror figure captured
 |  A poster of al-Zahrani on a Jeddah street. |
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi forces have captured a cleric who is a senior al Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia and is on the kingdom's list of 26 most-wanted terror suspects, officials say.
Cleric Faris al-Zahrani was captured in Abhar, a town in the mountains of southwest Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday evening, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
He was captured with one other suspect, but authorities have not released his name for security reasons, the Saudi press agency quoted an official as saying.
Both suspects were detained "swiftly and efficiently" and were not able to use the weapons they were carrying, the Saudi press agency added.
Al-Zahrani was No. 12 on the kingdom's list of 26 most-wanted terror suspects and has been described as an al Qaeda recruiter.
Al-Zahrani was someone who "denounces people as infidels," according to the Saudi press agency.
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, according to The Associated Press.
Fifteen of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian, and nine were from Abhar Province.
Al Qaeda and other terror groups have aimed attacks at non-Arabs in Saudi Arabia, partly in an effort to undermine the Saudi economy.
The arrest comes four weeks after he reassured Internet followers he was evading the Saudi crackdown, the AP reported.
"I would like to reassure the people who love me," he wrote on the Voice of Jihad site.
"I am careful in my movements and contacts, and I take all necessary precautions."
In the same statement, al-Zahrani rejected a limited amnesty that King Fahd offered militants in June.
Under the amnesty, which ended in late July, suspected terrorists who surrendered were spared the death penalty.
Six militants surrendered during the one-month amnesty. The most prominent was Khaled al-Harby, a confidant of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
AP quoted the liberal Arabic-language Web site www.elaph.com as saying al-Zahrani was "one of the most prominent theorists for terrorist cells in Saudi Arabia."
It said he is 30 years old and has a master's degree in Islamic Law from a Saudi Arabian university.
In an indication of al-Zahrani's importance, sympathetic messages began appearing on Islamic Web sites expressing regret and asking God to give him strength, AP added.
CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
