RIYADH, 3 March 2005 — Unknown militants opened fire on a police patrol car east of the capital early yesterday.
The car was being chased by the police patrol on suspicion that it was carrying wanted terror suspects. The chase and the shooting happened east of the capital yesterday at 2 30 a.m.
Brig. Gen. Mansoor Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed the incident to Arab News and said that security forces were on the lookout for the specific car east of Riyadh, which opened fire on the police patrol car in an uninhabited area.
The spokesman did not say if there were any injuries as a result of the shooting, nor did he say in which direction the runaway car escaped.
Over the past year, east of Riyadh has witnessed several terrorist incidents.
On March 18 last year, a home-made canister exploded while it was being prepared by terror suspect Fahd Al-Saidi. The explosion occurred in a villa in Al-Jazeera district, east of Riyadh. Residents in the area later phoned the police, who sealed off the area and surrounded the villa, which later turned out to be a hideout for terrorists.
A large cache of weapons, money and documents were confiscated from the villa after the siege and subsequent shootout. Several terrorist incidents occurred in the area since then.
