JEDDAH, 3 July 2004 — The Interior Ministry yesterday identified the terrorist killed in a Thursday night gunbattle as Awad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Al-Awad and the one wounded as Abdul Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Abdul Wahab.
Earlier reports had said both were killed.
The two militants were shot in the second gunbattle in as many days with militants in the capital.
An Interior Ministry statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency said the two men were among militants who fled a security raid on militant hide-outs in Riyadh on Wednesday when police killed an Al-Qaeda logistics operative.
“A member of the National Guard alerted security forces about the two wanted men. When security forces closed in on them, they opened fire and security forces responded, killing one of them and wounding the other, who was arrested.”
The statement said one security officer, Muslih ibn Saad Al-Qarni was killed and another was wounded.
On Wednesday, security forces shot dead Fahd ibn Ali Al-Qabalan, who was in charge of overseeing the smuggling of weapons and explosives into the Kingdom. A number of wounded militants escaped after that gunbattle. At least 87 policemen and civilians, many of them foreigners, have been killed in a spate of shootings and suicide bombings in the Kingdom since May 2003.
A source at the Interior Ministry said the clash between police and the terrorists took place after police spotted a number of wanted suspects while they were leaving a house in the King Fahd district. When police approached them, they opened fire and police fired back killing one and injuring another.
Al-Awad was involved in the Al-Fayha district attack on April 22 and was wanted in a number of other security cases.
The injured suspect, Al-Abdul Wahab, has been linked to the murder of the German, Jonathan Bengler in the Jarir shopping complex in eastern Riyadh on May 22.
Funeral prayers for the slain police officer were performed on Friday after his family was flown in by a special plane at the orders of Assistant Interior Minister Prince Muhammad ibn Naif.
The suspect killed in Wednesday’s shootout had initially been wrongly identified as Abdullah Al-Rashoud, a chief Al-Qaeda ideologue who gave up a teaching post with Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University to go underground and whose name appears on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects issued by the Interior Ministry in November 2003.
On Thursday a security source told Arab News police unearthed a large cache of arms in a villa in north Riyadh. However, the occupants of the villa escaped, the source added.
The current series of clashes between security forces and terrorists began with the gunning down of top Al-Qaeda operative Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin and four henchmen hours after they beheaded US hostage Paul Johnson.
Al-Muqrin became the leader of a group calling itself “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” after his predecessors were killed. Following Al-Muqrin’s death, the group vowed to fight on under new leadership, but so far no further attacks have been reported.
