Saudis kill gunmen linked to weekend siege

Saudi security forces today killed two key militants who had links to the weekend shooting attack and hostage-taking crisis that killed 22 people, most of them foreign oil workers.

The Interior Ministry said forces surrounded the two men in a remote area of al-Hada, on the Taif-Mecca highway in western Saudi Arabia, and killed them after they threw grenades and shot at the troops.

“Surveillance of those who carried out the criminal attack in Khobar resulted in tracking down the movements of key elements connected to this incident,” said the ministry.

The identities of the two men were not released. The ministry said one of them was disguised as a woman. It said there were no injuries among security forces.

“Security forces were able to tighten the noose on them … in a remote area in al-Hada. When (terrorists) sensed this, they started shooting at security forces and abandoned the car they were in and headed to a valley in an escape attempt,” it added.

Saudi security officials earlier had relayed a different account of the same incident in Taif, which is 700 miles south-west of Khobar where the weekend attack took place.

It was reported after the weekend outrage, which claimed the life of one Briton, that Saudi forces had allowed three al-Qaida linked terrorists to escape in exchange for not blowing up the complex where they were holding their hostages.

Saudi commandos and security forces had appeared to end the 25-hour shooting rampage and hostage taking in the oil city of Khobar when they landed a Chinook helicopter on the roof of the siege building.

One gunman was wounded and arrested but three others escaped.

A Saudi official said one of the men killed today was on a list of the kingdom’s 26 most-wanted militants.

Al-Arabiya television, based in the United Arab Emirates, identified one of the two as Abdul-Rahman Yazji. That name matches number 25 on the most-wanted list.

Saudi authorities began a high-profile crackdown on Islamic militants after a May 2003 attack on a Riyadh housing compound killed 35 people, including nine suicide bombers. Since then, there have been numerous shoot-outs with militants on Saudi streets.

Violence erupted in the capital Riyadh today when Americans were shot at.

Security officials said no-one was injured in the shooting which took place as the Americans were leaving a residential compound in the southern part of the capital.