RIYADH, 3 June 2004 — Saudi security forces yesterday gunned down two terror suspects in a gunbattle at Hada near Taif, the Interior Ministry said, linking the pair to the recent attacks in Alkhobar.
The Taif incident came as two Americans came under fire by unknown assailants outside the capital yesterday. A Saudi and an American were slightly injured in the attack.
“In the hunt for the assailants (behind) the criminal Alkhobar incident, police spotted on Tuesday important elements linked to this incident, one of whom was disguised as a woman, near Taif,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.
Security forces cornered the two on Tuesday about 6.30 p.m. in an isolated zone of Hada on the Taif-Makkah road in the west of the country, he added.
The spokesman said the suspects opened fire on security forces before running away to “a mountainous region and abandoning their car, in the hope of escaping.” He said at 6 a.m. yesterday, the two men lobbed grenades and opened fire on police, who responded, “leading to the deaths of the two wanted suspects.”
The incident came as Saudi security forces were hunting for three gunmen who attacked a residential compound in the eastern city of Alkhobar and took hostages in a weekend of carnage that left 22 people dead and 25 others wounded. Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bloody attacks.
The ministry spokesman, who said no security personnel were wounded in yesterday’s incident, would not disclose the identities of the two killed, in “the interests” of the investigation.
A police official in Taif, 50 km from Makkah, said earlier that one of them was among the most wanted “terrorists” in the Kingdom.
According to the Dubai-based satellite television Al-Arabiya, the pair were Al-Qaeda gunmen, who were stopped at a roadblock.
Saudi state television showed images of a police checkpoint in Taif at night as well as daytime footage of military helicopters hovering above a body — presumably a militant — laid out on a stretcher.
It was unclear whether yesterday’s shooting at Americans outside Riyadh was carried out by terrorists linked to the Alkhobar carnage.
When the two US nationals were driving their vehicles from their housing compound, they were approached by a GMC Yukon with two unidentified persons inside. The men then opened fire on the vehicles of the two who were driving on the Riyadh-Alkharj Highway at 8 a.m.
The press attache at the US Embassy, Robert Keith, told Arab News that one of the two sustained minor injuries.
Sources told Arab News that Naif Al-Harbi, a Saudi from Saudi Aramco, was caught in the line of fire when his car was sprayed with bullets. Harbi has been admitted to hospital. Keith did not reveal the names of the two Americans who were involved in the incident.
“The vehicles quickly returned to the hosuing compound,” Keith said, adding that there was only one individual in each of the two cars. One of them was “slightly injured,” he said.
The Riyadh police chief confirmed one Saudi was wounded in the incident but did not mention the American. “At 8 a.m. yesterday, unknown elements fired shots at cars of citizens and expatriates traveling along the old Riyadh-Alkharj Road,” SPA quoted the police chief as saying.
“A Saudi citizen was slightly injured and the incident is still being investigated,” he added.
Security officers were combing the area near the housing compound and set up checkpoints looking for suspects.
On May 22, a German national, Jonathan Hermann Bengler, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting while leaving a bank at around 6.15 in the evening. The shooting took place outside the Arab National Bank.
A 1999 Honda was parked near the bank and moved off as Bengler was coming out. Two people in the car opened fire at him, hitting him once in the head and four times in the chest with an automatic weapon before driving off.
