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.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS