JEDDAH, 23 April 2004 — Three suspected militants were killed and one security officer was wounded in a gun siege in Jeddah last night, a day after the terrorist car bomb in Riyadh. The drama started around 9.30 p.m., when police chased a car containing six suspects in the northeast of the city. The chase ended in Umm Al-Qura Street in the Al-Safa neighborhood, not far from the Makkah Expressway.
The six ran into a building in an area of mostly furnished apartments and started firing on the police, who returned fire. Reinforcements were called and the police sealed off an area of around 100 meters in all directions.
Around 11 p.m., the anti-terrorist forces arrived. Shortly afterward, with helicopters hovering overhead and the area packed with SWAT vehicles, shooting flared up again. At 11.40 the rattle of machine guns and the sound of an explosion rent the air; it seemed that security forces intended to storm the building.
Later, security forces announced that three of the gunmen had been killed and one captured, but the siege continued. Security forces using loud hailers asked those remaining inside to surrender.
At 12.30 there was another staccato exchange of fire. Swat teams were still arriving and the ambulances were pulled back. There has been no confirmation that the men were terrorists. There was a carnival atmosphere at the scene with crowds of onlookers being shunted back and forth.
Police said that earlier in the day they arrested six men after surrounding a building in the Al-Samar neighborhood, east of the Makkah Expressway. The reason for the arrests was not given. There was no indication whether the two events were connected.
The siege happened a day after a deadly car bomb in Riyadh claimed the lives of six people including four security officers and the suicide bomber.
Earlier yesterday, a Saudi terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted a special security forces building.
A statement by the group calling itself the Al-Haramain Brigades, which was published by at least two websites, said the attack targeted special security and anti-terrorism units in the Kingdom. The group also promised fresh attacks on government targets.
Saudi authorities have vowed to eliminate terrorism following the bombing, which also wounded 145 including nationals of 15 other countries.
Crown Prince Abdullah, who received calls from Bahrain’s King Hamad, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh condemning the blast, yesterday reiterated the Kingdom’s determination to stamp out terrorism.
“This crime is the work of a deviant minority and we are determined, God willing, to root them out,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the crown prince as telling President Saleh.
During his talks with King Hamad, Prince Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would go ahead with its campaign “to finish off this deviant group,” SPA said.
Interior Minister Prince Naif emphasized that the attack would only increase the determination and morale of security forces to hunt down terrorists. He also promised his full support to the security men. “I am one of them,” he added.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called for greater global cooperation to fight terror. “Cooperation to fight off this evil will be to the benefit of all sides,” he said during a joint press conference in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul.
“Our two countries must cooperate more closely to fight terrorism,” Gul said.
Wednesday’s car bomb attack was the first to target a government building and the first since a series of bombings rocked Riyadh last year, killing 52 people in suicide attacks on residential compounds in May and November.
The Interior Ministry yesterday identified four of the five victims as Col. Abdul Rahman Al-Saleh, Capt. Ibrahim ibn Mubarak Al-Dossary (from the Traffic Department), Ibrahim Nasser Al-Mufaireej and Wijdan Nasser Al-Kandery. Wijdan, an 11-year-old girl is a Saudi, not a Syrian as previously reported. One body was found torn into several pieces and could not be identified.
Twenty children were among the wounded, who included 89 Saudis, 13 Sudanese, five Bangladeshis, four Egyptians, four Syrians, four Lebanese, three Indians, three Ethiopians, two Moroccans, two Yemenis, a Pakistani, a Jordanian, a Sri Lankan, a Filipino, a Palestinian and an Indonesian.
Riyadh Governor Prince Salman and other top officials including Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, yesterday attended funeral prayers for the blast victims at Imam Turki ibn Abdullah Mosque.
A large number of Saudis met with the governor after the prayers to condemn the attack and assure the government of their loyalty, SPA said.
“With the new attack, there is no possibility of repeating the lie which says Americans are the target,” wrote Okaz newspaper, adding that the blast targeted the country’s “potential” and “the sons of the homeland.”
Al-Watan newspaper said the attack “revealed the false character of slogans” by militant groups and Al-Qaeda supporters who “previously justified terrorism by (wanting to) expel infidels from the Arabian Peninsula.”
“Now they are aiming their acts of treason against the defender of the security of the nation... who are all Muslim citizens,” the paper said.
In a brief statement Wednesday, an Interior Ministry official said the driver of a car blew up the vehicle when he was stopped from entering the Traffic Department headquarters.
The Traffic Department is one of several agencies located in the building in Riyadh’s Al-Washm district.
The building, a previous headquarters of public security, also houses departments charged with combating drugs and detecting explosives. It is located south of the Royal Guards housing compound and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The powerful blast, which occurred at 2 p.m., damaged seven buildings and a private school and at least 60 cars in the neighborhood, press reports said yesterday. They said there were some 200 people in the building at the time of the blast.
Okaz said the GMC truck that exploded just 30 meters away from the gate of the traffic department headquarters carried more than 1.2 tons of explosives.
A large group of women working at the Pensions Department just a few meters away from the traffic headquarters surprisingly escaped the blast without injuries.
