Eight persons killed in armed clash in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, Local, 7/29/2003

Saudi Arabia's ministry of the interior has announced the killing of six men equipped by guns and mortars and two Saudi security men in a fire exchange.

The armed conflict, which fell in the framework of an intensive campaign carried out by the Saudi authorities with the aim to liquidate the terrorists Ð near Breida city to the north of Saudi Arabia.

According to a statement by the Saudi ministry of the interior, broadcast on official TV, a police force besieged a farm in Breida near al-Qaseim after information were received on that several wanted persons are hiding there.

The statement indicated that the security forces, and after making sure that women and children went out, asked the gunmen to surrender themselves but they refused and responded by opening fire at the security forces. They also threw mortars.

The clashes resulted in killing six gunmen and wounding a seventh, while two police men were killed and other 8 were wounded.

The statement added that the police arrested four persons over providing shelter to the suspected wanted men.

The official statement gave no mention to the names of any of the killed but the spokesman for al-Islah opposition Islamic movement, which has London as a headquarters, Saad al-Faqih, said in a telephone interview that among the members of the armed group is a person from al-Dakhil family whose name was mentioned in the list of the 19 persons wanted by the Saudi authorities.

He added that the number of killings in the circles of the security forces might be much more than what was stated.

The Saudi opposition member added that the information he had received was that the operation took place yesterday at dawn in an area which is not far from the military al-Fweilaq base where American forces are presumed to be stationed.

The Saudi authorities launched a series of breaking in operations following the tripartite attack which targeted residential complexes for western citizens in Riyadh on May 12 and resulted in killing 35 persons including the nine attackers. The US and Saudi Arabia accused al-Qaida organization of committing these attacks.

Last week, Riyadh announced the detention of 16 persons suspected to have relations with al-Qaida organization in several areas including Riyadh and al-Qaseim as well as the Eastern area. Riyadh said that those persons were planning to launch more attacks, during which large amounts of weapons and explosives were confiscated.

The Saudi ministry of the interior said that the security forces foiled a scheme to carry out several attacks against pilot institutions in the Kingdom.

Previous Stories:
  One Bahriani arrested in Saudi Arabia   (7/28/2003)
  Al-Youm: Prince Nayef and al-Qaida organization   (7/24/2003)
  Yemen arrests four Aden army members   (7/3/2003)

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