Al-Qaida suspects blow themselves up to avoid capture

Two suspected Al-Qaida terrorists blew themselves up to avoid arrest in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca today.

Hours earlier a third suspect was killed in a shoot-out with security forces in the capital Riyadh.

The British Foreign Office had warned last month that “terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks” in Saudi Arabia.

It was the second day of clashes this week between the militants and police following a nationwide crackdown that followed a string of attacks in May on Western compounds in Riyadh that killed 26 people and nine attackers.

About 600 people linked to al-Qaida have been arrested in the crackdown.

The two who killed themselves in Mecca detonated explosives when security forces closed in to arrest them, a security official said.

The two likely belonged to a terror cell that had clashed with Saudi police in Mecca on Monday, the official said. That cell had been linked to al-Qaida, the terrorist network blamed for the May 12 attacks as well as the September 11 onslaught in the United States.

In Riyadh, Saudi police clashed with suspected terrorists in a narrow street. An Interior Ministry official said one suspect was killed and eight policemen were lightly injured.

Several militants were captured after the Riyadh shoot-out, said police but several escaped in cars, said a witness.

The official said security forces were searching a Riyadh neighbourhood when “a number of terrorists left the site, firing weapons and bombs.”

The security forces fired back as two helicopters flew overhead. The Interior Ministry said the confrontation lasted about five hours.

The militants appear to have taken refuge in several large, unfinished houses on Mohammed al-Rahouni Street. Two houses had scattered bullet holes on their walls.

A charred car lay in front of one house. Three other cars across the street were pocked with bullet holes. Pale yellow plastic handcuffs were scattered nearby, and children played with spent bullets.

“I was watching television when I heard the shooting. I quickly turned off the TV and ran into my mother’s room to hide, said 11-year-old Badran Moussa, who was up late because Saudis fast – and often sleep – during daylight hours in Ramadan.

“It was scary,” the boy added.

A neighbour, Badr Julaifi, said he saw several militants escape in two cars and he heard that five militants had been arrested.

Twelve to 17 militants were involved in the shoot-out, according to residents and a police officer on the scene.

The legitimacy of Saudi rulers rests partly on their being custodians of holy Mecca, which is off-limits to non-Muslims. A strike on Mecca could be seen as a strike on the royal family.

An Interior Ministry official as saying that the weapons and explosives seized in Monday’s raid could have endangered pilgrims in Mecca.

“The seized items and the criminal acts the terrorists were planning reveal the dangers and harm that could have happened in the holy city and its visitors,” he said.

Weapons seized from the terrorists included a box for storing explosives in a car trunk dozens of hydrogen tanks four automatic rifles eight pistols 1,246 bullets of various types 21 grenades three rocket propelled grenade launchers military fatigues and women’s clothes, apparently intended for disguise.