Four dead in Saudi terror shoot-out

Saudi security forces clashed with five wanted militants at a suspected hideout north of Riyadh today, killing four of the men and wounding a fifth, a security official said.

A security agent was also killed and two others were wounded in the shoot-out at a resthouse outside the town of Buraida, the official said. Buraida is one of the kingdom’s fundamentalist strongholds.

The official said the men were “misguided individuals,” a euphemism Saudi officials use to refer to Islamic militants. He said weapons and ammunition were found at the scene.

It was not immediately known whether the militants were on a government list of 26 most-wanted militants.

The kingdom launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists following attacks in May and November 2003 in Riyadh. The government says it has foiled dozens of terror attacks in the kingdom since the campaign began. Most of the attacks were blamed on al-Qaida.