Two suspected leaders of the al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia have been killed in clashes with security forces that have been raging for two days, al-Arabiya television reported from the Saudi capital.
Citing Saudi security forces, the Dubai-based station identified the two leaders of the Saudi al-Qaeda cell as Saudi national Saud al-Otaibi and Moroccan Abdel Karim al-Mojati, who were on the kingdom's list of 26 most-wanted Islamist militants.
The gunbattle began early Sunday when security forces deployed in al-Rass in the al-Qassim region, 320km north of the Saudi capital Riyadh, to track down a group of suspects who had taken refuge in a residential building and then came under fire from automatic weapons.
Eight militants have been killed in the clashes and one surrendered, the television station reported. On Monday the Saudi officials put the toll at seven dead with one militant in hospital in critical condition.
Several members of the Saudi security forces have been injured in the fighting, the interior ministry said Monday.
"The operation is continuing. The security forces have surrounded them. There is still gunfire from the besieged building," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Mansur al-Turki said Monday.
One witness in al-Rass said: "Shooting and explosions intensified when night fell [Monday], underlining the ferocity of the clashes."
He said the trapped men seemed to be "looking for a way to break the siege that the security forces have tightened around them after their refusal to surrender."
Residents said security forces deployed in large numbers at the site as helicopters hovered overhead and gunfire and loud blasts were heard. The clash started at around 8am Sunday.
If the deaths of Otaibi and Mojati are confirmed, only four of Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted Islamic militants remain on the run. The others have been killed or arrested.
A campaign of bombings and shootings blamed on al-Qaeda has killed 90 civilians in Saudi Arabia since May 2003, according to official figures.
Thirty-nine members of the security forces and 99 militants have also been killed, including the seven in the latest battle according to the official toll.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is Saudi-born and 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US were Saudis.
The unrest in the world's top oil exporter has raised fears about the security of the West's supplies but Saudi authorities insist that the oilfields, concentrated in the east of the kingdom, are well protected.
King Fahd on Monday reiterated pledges repeatedly made by Saudi officials to defeat the extremists.
The Saudi government was determined to "eradicate terrorism and fight the deviant group," he told a weekly cabinet session, according to an official statement.
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