London stops flights to Saudi Arabia for security reasons
Saudi Arabia-UK, Local, 8/14/2003

The British airline company (British Airways) yesterday said it has suspended its flights to Saudi Arabia for security reasons. The government said that it has intelligence information of serious danger for its planes in Saudi Arabia.

London did not link between this decision and the armed clash which took place on Monday in Riyadh with gunmen the Saudi government says were planning to target British interests. The company said in a statement that it had suspended its flights to Saudi Arabia until indefinite time over the increase of security fears in the region.

Meantime, the Saudi minister of the interior prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said that the police arrested persons of what he described as "extremists Islamists" with whom it clashed in Riyadh and that seven are still fleeing. He added that they have links to al- Qaida organization.

The Saudi minister stressed that during Tuesday's clashes, four security men were killed and also one security man. He added amounts of ammunition were found in the site of the clashes. The clashes took place when the security forces broke into a villa in the al-Sweidi residential quarters to the south of the capital, Riyadh, where the gunmen were hiding.

Previous Stories:
  Saudi- British military cooperation   (7/10/2003)
  Britain withdraws its forces from Saudi Arabia   (5/17/2003)
  London recommends its citizens not to head for Saudi Arabia   (5/14/2003)
  One armed Saudi kills a British in al-Riyadh   (2/21/2003)
  Tension in the Saudi, British relations   (2/8/2001)

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