Saudi policemen injured in armed attack

Two Saudi police men were injured when one armed man opened fire from the car he was riding at security men at a point for checking speed for a security inspection center to the north of Riyadh on Wednesday evening and they fled.

In a statement the Saudi ministry of the interior said that the incident took place when a police patrol monitored a car running at a high speed, noting that one of its passengers tried to stop it by opening fire at the road security patrol which chased them, and this resulted in breaking the front window glass of the patrol and two security men were slightly injured in their legs as a result. The ministry stressed that the security forces chased the gunman who escaped towards the desert.

Earlier, security sources said that gunmen opened fire at two policemen near al-Majma's city on the road between Riyadh and al-Qasom and slightly injured them.

Al-Qasim area which is considered the center of Islamists activists said by the beginning of April witnessed violent confrontations during which 15 activists were killed suspected to belong to al-Qaida organization at the security forces hands.

Among the 15 who were killed was the Saudi Saud al-Oteibi who is considered by the authorities as the leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan Abdul Karim al-Majati who is suspect5ed to be the mastermind for the explosions of Madrid and Casablanca.

These confrontations two years ago were the most violent and bloodiest since the beginning of the campaign launched by the Saudi security forces against who are called by the authorities as the "misleads" of supporters of al-Qaida organization.