JEDDAH, 22 June 2005 — Two terrorists suspected of murdering a senior police officer three days ago in Makkah were killed by Saudi security forces in a gunbattle in Jeddah yesterday morning, according to the Interior Ministry. The terrorists were identified as Mansour Al-Thubaity and Kamal Foudah. On Saturday morning, Lt. Col. Mubarak Al-Sawat was shot dead in front of his house as he was leaving for work. Since then, the security forces have been hunting for the assassins. “Investigations in Lt. Col. Al-Sawat’s murder led us to two suspects from the deviant group responsible for the crime,” Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, Interior Ministry spokesman, told Arab News.
Al-Turki said the car carrying the two suspects was spotted on the Makkah highway near Jeddah during the early morning hours. The suspects began firing at security officers and security forces fired back, damaging the suspects’ car. The suspects then abandoned the car, hijacked another car and took shelter in a building. A gunbattle then began. It ended with their deaths. The spokesman said three policemen were injured in the gunbattle, one of them seriously.
The building where the battle took place backs against a mountain. Police and eyewitnesses at the scene told Arab News that the two men came off the mountain and entered the building through the roof.
Residents of the Kilo 14 area of Old Makkah Road said shooting began soon after Fajr prayer and continued until 8 a.m. The sound of gunfire and sirens jolted some residents out of their sleep as the battle raged on the rooftops above them. When Arab News reporters visited the scene, there was a police patrol jeep at the building’s entrance. In front of it, was a pool of blood, the only indicators that a violent struggle had taken place. Four young boys were in the street, laughing and joking. Everything had virtually returned to normal.
Abdullah, 15, lives fewer than 50 meters from the building. He was on the street with his cousins after the gunbattle. He recalled: “I heard the first shots just after Fajr. I was with my cousins. We wanted to go see what was happening but the police were on the loud speaker telling people to stay indoors. So we did. From inside we heard what sounded like helicopters circling above us. The police were on the rooftops and on the hill shooting at the building. They used a lot of bullets. I think they all had machine guns. The whole thing lasted several hours. When the shooting stopped, we went to see what happened and we saw two bodies laid out in the street. The men looked like they were Saudi because they were wearing thobes.”
Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, later visited the family of Al-Sawat in Makkah and conveyed the condolences of Interior Minister Prince Naif.
— Additional input from Abdul Maqsood Mirza
