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Saudi police kill suspected militant
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-14 08:52
Saudi police killed an alleged Islamic militant and arrested three others
Sunday in a shootout at a suspected terror cell hideout in the Red Sea city of
Jiddah, the Interior Ministry said.
Security forces had sought one of the people arrested for allegedly belonging
to a "deviant group," a term Saudi authorities commonly use to refer to Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
The clash was the latest in a 2-year-old crackdown on Islamic militants by
the Saudi monarchy, which has been struggling to end suicide bombings and terror
attacks on security and Western targets.
Saudi
police stand guard outside the apartment building that Saudi security
forces raided in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, Sunday, March, 13, 2005.
Saudi police killed a suspect Islamic militant and arrested three others
in a shootout Sunday on a suspected terror cell hideout in the city.
[AP] | The suspected militants were holed up in a residential apartment building in
Jiddah's Rabwa district, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by
the official Saudi Press Agency.
Thirteen policemen and a man and his wife were wounded in the shootout. The
woman died later at a hospital.
The shootout prompted the U.S. consulate general in Jiddah to delay its
Independence Day celebration, originally set for March 14. The U.S. Embassy and
consulates in Saudi Arabia traditionally host such celebrations in the spring or
fall rather than on July 4 due to Saudi's hot summer weather.
Worries in Jiddah have been high since the U.S. consulate was attacked Dec.
6. Five foreign consulate employees and four attackers died in the ensuing
gunfight between militants and Saudi security forces.
Last week, the U.S. Embassy warned American citizens living in a residential
compound there to be on high alert, and some Americans then left.
Saudi Arabia has waged a nationwide crackdown since al-Qaida-linked militants
attacked three residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003. Officials this month
said they have detained 700 terror suspects, including 18 of the 26 most wanted
men in the kingdom. Numerous suspects also have died in raids or
clashes.
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