Clampdown widens
Saudi Arabia's crackdown on suspected terrorists moved into the Kingdom's religious heartland last week, reports John R Bradley in Jeddah
Six suspected militants were killed and at least four others who had been providing them with shelter at a remote farm in the Qassim region north of Riyadh were arrested on Monday as announced by the Interior Ministry in a newsflash on local television.
Two security officers were also killed, the ministry said, and eight others were injured.
The operation started late Sunday night after a tip-off that one of 19 militants wanted since 6 May had been given refuge by sympathisers on a remote farm, a Saudi security source told Al-Ahram Weekly. The 19 escaped after their hideout in Riyadh was raided.
It took three days to track down the militants' hide-out, the source added. Police encountered four men, three women and six children on the farm, who denied that they were hiding anyone.
"Eventually it was discovered that a gang was inside the farmhouse and they decided to fight to the death with the weapons they had, rather than take the opportunity they were given to surrender," the source explained, saying that they were mostly in their teens and early 20s.
"The real Al-Qa'eda cells were smashed months ago," Nawaf Obeid, a leading Saudi security analyst, told the Weekly. "Those that are remaining, like the cell raided yesterday, are amateurs in comparison."
Qasim, the scene of yesterday's shoot-out, is the spiritual heartland of Saudi Arabia's austere brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, and was among the regions where 16 Saudi nationals were arrested last week for terrorist-related activities. The 16 were linked to Al-Qa'eda, according to Interior Minister Prince Naif.
Security forces uncovered a huge underground cache of weapons they had stockpiled, as well as 200 tonnes of bomb-making equipment and chemicals. A number of militants escaped, but it remains unclear if those killed yesterday were part of the same cell. Security forces are still carrying out a nationwide hunt for other arms caches believed to have been buried by terrorist cells, with the holy city of Mecca the main focus in the ongoing operation.
Saudi Arabia intensified its hunt for militants and their supporters after the simultaneous suicide attacks on three Western residential compounds on 12 May, which killed 26 bystanders and nine of the attackers.
