JEDDAH, 19 June 2005 — Gunmen shot dead a senior Saudi security officer outside his house in Makkah yesterday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said unidentified gunmen shot the security officer just after he stepped out of his house.
An informed source identified the murdered officer as Lt. Col. Mubarak Al-Sawat from the General Investigation Department. The source said the officer, in his 40s, received more than 10 gunshots, adding that police were investigating the drive-by shooting.
Police have put up a number of checkpoints all over Makkah and are engaged in a massive manhunt to track down the criminals. Security sources did not confirm or deny whether the shooting was related to any terror attack.
Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has witnessed a series of shootings and bombings blamed on Al-Qaeda terrorists. On June 1, two Saudi policemen were slightly wounded when they came under fire from gunmen in a car on the Riyadh-Qassim Expressway.
In April, in the bloodiest battle of the two-year campaign against Al-Qaeda, security forces killed 15 terrorists in Qassim, including the Al-Qaeda chief in the Kingdom and the Moroccan mastermind of the March 2004 Madrid train bombings. According to Saudi government statistics, 90 civilians, 42 security personnel and 110 militants have been killed in the terrorist attacks over the past two years.
The Kingdom has won international praise for its successful campaign against terrorists. Crown Prince Abdullah has reaffirmed that the government would crush the “deviants,” no matter how long it takes.
