JEDDAH/DAMMAM, 6 September 2005 — A Saudi police officer was killed yesterday in an exchange of fire as the siege by Saudi security forces of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists entered its second day.
An officer shot in the siege yesterday has since died of his wounds. The militant who was shot and wounded yesterday outside a supermarket early on in the incident has also died.
Unconfirmed reports said the two militants shot in Dammam on Sunday had figured on a list of 36 most wanted terrorists. They identified the pair as Zaid Saad Al-Samari, 31, and Walid Mutlaq Al-Radadi, 21, who died in the shootout with security forces outside a supermarket on Muhammad ibn Fahd Street on Sunday.
An official Interior Ministry source said late Sunday that security forces had killed two suspects following a gunbattle in Dammam. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman of the ministry, said two policemen died of wounds sustained in the shootout.
Gen. Turki told Arab News that the authorities had no immediate plans to storm the building in Mubarakiya district but would instead lay siege to the building in a bid to capture the gunmen alive. “We are not in a hurry because time is in our favor and we want to avoid casualties among security officers,” he said.
Saudi television showed a heavy gunbattle between security forces and militants, resulting in at least one fire. Soldiers were shown firing from rooftops, one of them using a rocked-propelled grenade launcher.
The authorities described the besieged militants as members of Al-Qaeda network, who have carried out a wave of shootings and bombings in the Kingdom since May 2003.
“Sporadic gunfire is continuing around the buildings where the members of the deviant group are holed up,” one security source said, adding that there were 10 suspects inside.
“The security forces have reinforced their positions and are bringing in bulldozers and additional heavy equipment.
“We’re in no rush to storm the building as we’re hoping to capture them alive and obtain information about wanted terrorists,” he said.
Residents reported hearing heavy gunfire as they were evacuated from nearby homes. One witness said he saw scared children being driven out as a helicopter hovered overhead.
There were unconfirmed reports that terrorists had killed one of their own colleagues when he tried to surrender to security officers.
The reports also indicated that the terrorists might have run away from Madinah after their commander Saleh Al-Oufi was gunned down by security forces last month.
The terrorists had turned the building into a hide-out and a base for making weapons. They rented it two months ago through a real estate office for an annual rent of SR40,000.
The US Consulate in the nearby city of Dhahran closed yesterday because of security concerns linked to the shootout.
“In response to an ongoing standoff between Saudi security forces and an unknown number of terrorists in Dammam, the US Consulate General in Dhahran will be temporarily closed to the public,” said a statement on the US Embassy website.
Saudi security forces have cracked down relentlessly on Al-Qaeda rounding up hundreds of suspects, since it launched its campaign of violence in the Kingdom more than two years ago.
Most of the 36 militants on a most-wanted list issued in June remains at large. The authorities said at the time that they believed 21 of them were outside the country.
Only one militant remains at large from an earlier list of 26 wanted terrorists issued in December 2003.
