RIYADH, 27 April 2004 — Five terrorists who on April 13 killed an officer and his partner working for Al-Mujahedeen, a unit affiliated to the internal security forces, are still at large.
A source told Arab News that security forces are besieging a mountainous area in Al-Ammariya, about 35 kilometers northeast of the capital. The police have been hunting the suspects since they fled Wadi Hanifa two weeks ago, abandoning their truck.
The source said the terrorists were located in the area when heat sensors and night vision binoculars revealed that one of the five had been injured and that the other four were carrying him.
Some 10 armored vehicles, 100 police patrol cars from local police, Mujahedeen units, special forces and Saudi intelligence, in addition to five helicopters from the special forces and the Civil Defense are taking part in the siege which is still in progress.
The source ruled out the possibility of catching the militants easily, saying that the rugged nature of the area where the suspects are not easily accessible in cars or jeeps. There are also many caves and other possible hiding places in the area. The source said the suspects were armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
According to Al-Riyadh newspaper, an Indian who was kidnapped by the terrorists and forced to help them, tipped off the security officers about the present location of the militants.
The Indian gave his captors the slip after being held for a week and informed local officers at a police checkpoint in the area.
The newspaper also reported that the militants had run out of food and were in danger of starvation if they did not give themselves up. The siege is being directed by Prince Ahmed ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Rahman, governor of Daraeyah, Lt. Gen. Saeed Al-Qahtani, director of public security, and Lt. Gen. Abdullah Al-Shahrani, the head of the Riyadh Police.
“The search still continues,” said Prince Naif to a reporter when asked about the militants who had killed a member of the Mujahedeen.
Naif Al-Otaibi of the Mujahedeen unit was shot dead by a group of five terrorists in Shoaib Al-Haysa, near the entrance to Wadi Hanifa on the outskirts of Al-Uyaynah, 45 km northwest of Riyadh. Bujaid Al-Otaibi, Naif’s colleague, was shot in the left leg but managed to drive the Mujahedeen patrol car back to base where he called for support. The suspects were sighted in a white Mitsubishi truck, which they later abandoned.
It is not clear whether the besieged terrorists are on the list of most wanted terrorists distributed by the Ministry of Interior. Four terrorists on the list were killed in a shootout with police in Jeddah last week.
Saudi Arabia has launched a major crackdown on militant supporters of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network since May 12 suicide bombings on residential compounds in Riyadh.
Last Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed at least five people including four security officers in an attack on a security headquarters in the capital. The blast took place after clashes between security forces and suspected militants in Riyadh and at checkpoints along the road linking the capital to the northern province of Qasim.
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry named the previously unidentified security officer killed in the recent Riyadh blast as Hussein Faqeehi. Prince Naif visited Faqeehi’s family to convey his condolences.
Later speaking to reporters, Prince Naif asked all terrorists to surrender. “If they have any conscience and fear God, they should surrender because it is better for them. The death and martyrdom of this little girl must encourage every citizen to work as a security man and inform about terror suspects,” he said while visiting the family of Wijdan Nasser Al-Kanderi, who was killed in the blast.
Faqeehi stopped the car carrying the bomb when it tried to enter the Traffic Department headquarters. The terrorist detonated the bomb when the security officer asked the truck driver to leave the area, killing himself, Faqeehi and four others and injuring 145 people.
In a related development, security agents have located a clinic, which the terrorists used for treatment after clashes with police. According to Al-Yaum Arabic daily, they found the clinic during a raid on a house in Riyadh’s Suwaidi neighborhood. In one room, they found three months of food supplies. Police also seized a pickup, a computer and a number of communication devices from the house, the paper added.
