JEDDAH, 6 September 2004 — Three Saudi security officers were killed yesterday when their patrol car caught fire after being hit by gunfire while chasing suspected terrorists in the central city of Buraidah, the Interior Ministry said.
“A patrol car caught fire after it was hit by a bullet while chasing a suspects’ car, which led to the martyrdom of three security men,” in Buraidah, 340 km northwest of Riyadh, a ministry official said.
Seven suspected terrorists were also arrested in a dawn swoop by security forces in southern neighborhoods of Buraidah in the Qasim region, the ministry official said, adding that their identities were being checked.
Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that the security forces besieged Al-Khaleej neighborhood, south of Buraidah, yesterday evening after the shootout.
Buraidah witnessed a series of security operations over the past week aimed at tracking down suspected militants linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Security forces gunned down a terrorist and arrested another on Friday in a similar chase, hours after a security officer was shot dead and three were wounded when their patrol car came under fire. On Aug. 28, police arrested three wanted terrorists and a Pakistani suspect who came to Buraidah from the southern part of the Kingdom.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour Al-Turki said the seven presumed terrorists were arrested yesterday as security forces combed southern Buraidah, but before the police vehicle came under fire.
“We have been combing the area since Thursday’s shootout. We usually do that looking for runaway suspects, stolen cars and weapons left behind,” he said.
Security forces regularly clash with suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists blamed for a wave of violence in the Kingdom since May 2003. Many have been killed in gunbattles.
On Thursday, the Interior Ministry announced that a Saudi terrorist wanted for a shooting and hostage-taking rampage in the eastern city of Alkhobar, which left 22 people dead in May, had turned himself in. Only six militants took up a month-long amnesty offered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd in June.
