What? You mean you can be an Arabic poet and a violent jihadist? I thought Australia’s Sheikh Al-Hilali had explained to us that the two were mutually exclusive! Anyway, “The Poet,” a senior Al-Qaeda member, has been killed in Saudi Arabia. From those acute folks at CNN, :
A senior al Qaeda leader — described as the group’s “chief of operations in the Arabian Peninsula” — was killed in a shootout in Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials have told CNN.
A U.S. counterterrorism official called the death on Monday “very significant, and a major blow to al Qaeda.”
The man was identified as Abu Hazim al-Sha’ir, also known as Kahlid Ali Hajj. He was also nicknamed “the poet,” officials said.
“This was a very significant senior al Qaeda figure in Saudi Arabia,” the counterterrorism official said.
Hajj, originally from Yemen, has been sought since May, when Saudi officials put his name on a list of men wanted for questioning just before the triple suicide bombings in the capital city of Riyadh, according to Reuters.