RIYADH, 24 June 2006 — Saudi security forces killed six suspected members of a terrorist cell allegedly plotting suicide attacks from a house in a residential district of the capital early yesterday morning.
One suspect, injured by gunfire while trying to escape, has reportedly been captured but was in critical condition at an undisclosed location.
“In the early morning hours, security forces pursued the seven members of the deviant minority to a house in the Al-Nakhil district and immediately came under sustained automatic weapons fire,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki.
One member of the Kingdom’s security forces, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al-Shehri, was reported killed while others were injured in the shootout, said Al-Turki.
By about 2.30 a.m. the police had secured the area and were searching the house, which the ministry described as “a hide-out for crime, corruption and a base for plots of aggression.”
One of the policemen cordoning off the area told the news agency AFP: “The group was preparing a terrorist operation and its members were being tailed on the basis of intelligence service information.”
Saudi state television showed police removing several vehicles from the scene, some of them damaged in the clash, as officers carried away what appeared to be bags of evidence. Security sources said the militants were on the verge of launching unspecified attacks.
The ministry reported that the search of the property turned up boxes of documents and computers that were being used to communicate with others through the Internet. The two-story house was recently constructed in this residential neighborhood. Policemen at the scene later said they had seized a videotape showing that the group had been plotting to carry out a suicide bombing against a security target in Riyadh within the next two days.
An eyewitness told Arab News that the men initiated the exchange of fire with the authorities.
“The whole operation was brought under control within 45 minutes,” said the witness to the firefight who did not want to be identified. He said that an SUV and a sedan belonging to the suspects were damaged in the shootout.
The Interior Ministry arranged a private plane to fly in members of slain officer Shehri’s family to attend his burial, said Turki. Prince Mohammed ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, attended the funeral prayers yesterday.
Security forces yesterday afternoon surrounded a house and made a thorough search on getting information that the house belonged to a member of the deviant group. The house is in the Olaya district.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah pledged in April to annihilate Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the Kingdom, vowing to “combat the ideology of those who accuse others of infidelity.”
At least 90 civilians, 55 security personnel and 136 militants have died since a wave of unrest began in May 2003 where compounds were attacked in Riyadh. Hundreds more have been wounded.
— With input from Abdul Hannan Faisal Tago and Agencies
