JEDDAH, 11 December 2003 — Security forces on Monday captured two men wanted in connection with recent terrorist activities in Makkah. They were apprehended in a white Toyota Corolla in Makkah’s Al-Shuhada district.
The operation lasted half an hour with eyewitnesses stating that no shots were fired. The two men did not resist arrest. Al-Shuhada is home to many government employees and is considered a reputable middle-income area in the city’s northwest, some 2 km from the Holy Mosque.
Reports differ as to whether the men were armed or not.
Okaz newspaper reported that semi-automatic weapons were found in the men’s possession.
An eyewitness told Arab News that the arrests were initially seen by local residents as “just a big traffic dispute with the police arriving to clear things up. We were not aware of what was happening.”
Meanwhile, security forces have arrested nine people for weapons possession, Al-Watan newspaper has reported.
Four of the men were arrested in Al-Mujarda after going to the wrong house to buy weapons. They mistakenly knocked on the door of a man who had the same name as their contact, Abu Sulaiman.
The Abu Sulaiman on whose door they knocked, however, is a government employee and when they asked him to hand over the items in his possession, he was surprised and asked, “What items?”
When they explained they wanted weapons, Abu Sulaiman stalled them and called the police who then arrested them. The four told the police they were in the area “to hunt” and they had five other friends in the northern area of Al-Arid.
The police captured the others in Al-Baha seizing the weapons and ammunition in their possession.
