JEDDAH, 4 April 2005 — Three suspected terrorists were killed yesterday after more than 12 hours of intense gunbattle with Saudi security forces north of Riyadh, a provincial governor said.
“Three wanted men were killed and some members of the security forces were wounded,” Prince Faisal ibn Bandar, governor of Qasim, told Al-Ekhbariya television.
The clash had erupted at around 8 a.m. after an attempted raid by security forces on a house where the wanted militants were holed up in the city of Al-Rass in the Qasim region.
“Security forces are working now to bring an end to the clashes,” the governor said, adding that an unspecified number of armed men had now moved from the building where they had been hiding to another house.
It was the longest standoff between security forces and militants. Some 106 girl students and female teachers were held up at a nearby primary school as a result of the fierce gunbattle. Police evacuated the girls by knocking down a rear wall of the school.
A security source earlier said that the clash took place as security forces raided a house where suspected members of the Al-Qaeda network were believed to be hiding. The source said that the security forces were initially unable to launch a raid on the building due to the intensity of the fire coming at them.
The shootout is just the latest deadly exchange between security forces and militants responsible for a wave of violence in the Kingdom over the past 23 months.
Additional forces were sent from Riyadh to confront the militants, believed to be well trained in armed fighting. Security sources said the militants included wanted terrorists.
Medical sources said earlier that one security officer was killed and at least 20 others wounded in the battle in Al-Rass, 300 km northwest of Riyadh. But Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, said he was not aware of any fatalities among security forces.
