Posted on 06/02/2004 6:35:28 AM PDT by kattracks
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi security forces Wednesday killed two suspected militants linked to a weekend shooting and hostage-taking in eastern Saudi Arabia where 22 people were slain, the Interior Ministry said. Also Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy said gunmen fired on American military personnel in the capital of Riyadh, slightly injuring a driver of unknown nationality.The ministry, in a statement reported by the official Saudi Press Agency, said security forces surrounded the two men in a remote area in al-Hada, on the Taif-Mecca highway in western Saudi Arabia, and killed them after they threw grenades and shot at the troops.
"Surveillance of those who carried out the criminal attack in Khobar resulted in tracking down the movements of key elements connected to this incident," the statement said.
It wasn't immediately clear how they were connected to the Khobar attack, at the end of which three gunmen fled. Saudi security forces have been following tips to their whereabouts, but information had been largely centered on the eastern region where the Khobar attack occurred. Taif is 700 miles southwest of Khobar, near the holy city of Mecca.
The statement did not identify the two men. Earlier, though, a Saudi security official who had relayed a different account of the same incident in Taif identified one of the men as Abdul Rahman Mohammed Yazji, No. 25 on a list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted militants. The official had no details on the second man.
Saudi television showed video of what it said was the Taif operation, with helicopters taking part and two bodies covered in bloodstained white sheets, being carried away on stretchers by security forces.
The Interior Ministry statement said one of the men was disguised as a woman. It said there were no injuries among security forces.
On Sunday, Saudi commandos and security forces ended a 25-hour shooting rampage and hostage siege at a resort and housing complex in Khobar in which 22 people - mostly foreigners working in the oil industry - were killed. One gunman was wounded and arrested; three others escaped.
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has vowed to destabilize the Saudi government, which the Saudi-born extremist views as insufficiently Islamic and which he derides for its close relationship with the United States. Saudi officials have linked militant violence in the kingdom to al-Qaida or to other groups believed inspired by bin Laden.
In Riyadh, shots were fired Wednesday morning on two vehicles carrying U.S. military personnel near a Saudi National Guard compound where a U.S. training unit is based, according to a U.S. Embassy statement. The convoy returned immediately to the compound, and a driver, whose nationality was not given, was slightly injured, the statement said. It was not clear whether the driver was shot.
"Saudi Arabian authorities are investigating," the statement added.
Saudi security officials had said earlier that no one was injured in the shooting in the southern part of the capital. The conflicting reports on the injury could not be immediately reconciled.
The Khobar attack had sparked increases in already high global oil prices, amid fears that the Saudi government, which controls the world's largest proven crude reserves, cannot protect its vital oil installations.
In Lebanon, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said his country was taking adequate steps to safeguard its most important facilities.
"The illusion that terrorism threatens petroleum facilities in the world is not true. I assure you that installations in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia are secure because they are under intensive protection to prevent such acts," he said in a speech at the Beirut offices of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
Naimi was in Beirut for a formal Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting Thursday on production policy. Saudi Arabia is already boosting its own production to try to get prices down, Naimi said earlier that he would urge OPEC to raise its output ceiling by as much as 2.5 million barrels a day, or 11 percent.
Bullets are a lot cheaper than a jail cell.
Dead men tell no tales...
Either they let the perps get away or they kill others who could provide leads. Sounds like a cover up.
IN AGGREMENT
I wont believe it unless our people confirm it. Its too convenient for the saudis to wiggle out of having to deal with these guys if they simply report they killed them. Yeah, right...
Ha ha. Good one! Is this from the guy who does cartoons for The NY Daily Post?
Prove it.
Amen to that.
How convenient! Anyone who trusts the Saudis is a complete fool.
Dead men don't implicate royal family ties...
Flag
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks. They keep reporting 22 killed which I think are all foreigners and not reporting at least 7 Saudis killed. Why?
The 22 victims have been described as "mostly foreigners," thereby including Saudis in that mix.
Wouldn't it be great to completely abandon them (and Mubarak) and just stand by and watch what happens?
If they told me my own name, I wouldn't believe them!
-Boot
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