Tuesday, Apr 05, 2005
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By Atul Aneja
MANAMA, APRIL 4. After a gun battle that has lasted nearly 24 hours, Saudi forces have killed eight suspected militants in the northern town of Al-Ras. The clash began early on Sunday when security forces tried to raid a house where the suspects were staying. Eyewitnesses said most of the fighting was over by Monday morning, but there was gunfire, which came from a nearby building, which was under construction. Saudi officials said the suspected militants, who were trapped in a complex, had hurled hand grenades at the security forces. The fighting has resulted in a significant number of casualties. Hospital officials said they had treated 51 security personnel by midday. The Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier-General Mansour al-Turki, said he could not verify casualty figures but confirmed the operation in Al-Ras, 300 km northwest of Riyadh, had continued for more than 24 hours after it began. "They [suspected militants] were asked to surrender, but those people are known not to listen," local Governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz told state television on Sunday. He described the gunmen as "terrorists." Saudi Arabia has been combating supporters of Osama bin Laden's Al- Qaeda network, since May 2003. Al-Ras is in the conservative Qassim province — an area where the practitioners of Wahabi doctrine abound. Militants in Saudi Arabia have been targeting westerners, especially Americans in the last two years. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil and Islamic activists have, in the past, managed to strike a petrochemical complex in the Red Sea industrial city of Yanbu.
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