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Saudi police, militants fight in Jeddah

Saudi police and suspected Muslim militants exchanged fire in the Red Sea city of Jeddah yesterday and the gunmen were still on the run after an hours-long pursuit, security sources said.

The shooting between police and the militants, who were firing from moving cars, came nearly a week after a major al-Qaeda attack in the world's biggest oil-exporting country killed 22 people in the city of Khobar.

"Police pursued the militants but they managed to escape," one source said. "They are still hunting them down."

After initial investigations based on the car license plates, police believed the gunmen were known security suspects but were not thought to be on a central list of 26 wanted militants.

Fears about the security situation in the world's biggest oil exporter helped push world oil prices to record highs last week before producers pledged to hike output.

On Friday, al-Qaeda's top leader in the kingdom, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, called on Saudis to support the militants' campaign to topple the US-allied Saudi monarchy.

He praised an al-Qaeda attack in the Saudi city of Yanbu in early May, the killing of a German in Riyadh two weeks ago and Wednesday's shooting on US military personnel near Riyadh.

He also rejected a Saudi claim that two militants killed near the western city of Ta'if on Wednesday had links to the Khobar attack.

"The operation in Khobar was a new victory which God bestowed upon the mujahidin and which put the Saudi government in a deep crisis," said Muqrin in the latest issue of Saut al-Jihad [Voice of Holy War], an al-Qaeda Internet magazine.

"It took the oil price to its highest levels of over US$42, while Saudi Arabia is committed to America's prosperity by providing oil at the cheapest prices."

Saudi Arabia has been battling militants of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for over a year and Muqrin has vowed 2004 will be "bloody and miserable" for the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's top religious authority has issued an edict urging citizens and residents to inform authorities about suspected militants planning terror activities.

The edict, or fatwa, was issued on Friday by Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheik, and called on "citizens and residents to inform on everyone planning or preparing an act of sabotage, to protect the people and the country from the devastating effects of these acts and to protect the planners from the results of their actions."

The edict was reported by the official Saudi Press Agency, which said it was issued following several inquiries from the public about "tragic events" in the kingdom of late and how to deal with them.

More than 60 people have been killed over the past year in terror attacks in the kingdom, and Saudi authorities since have launched an aggressive and public anti-terror campaign in an attempt to crack down on suspected militants. Dozens have been arrested and large caches of weapons have been seized.
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