Saudi Arabia dissolved several Riyadh-based Islamic charities on Wednesday after criticism from the Unites States that funds had been channelled to al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
The crackdown came amid continuing violence in the country which added to nervousness among expatriates and oil traders.
Saudi forces claimed yesterday to have killed two men, one dressed as a woman, who were linked to the slaughter at Al-Khobar at the weekend which left 22 people dead after suspected al-Qaeda gunmen raided a complex housing foreign oil workers and held hostages for 25 hours.
The Saudi embassy in Washington said on Wednesday that al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and other Saudi charities are to be rolled into one and subjected to closer government scrutiny.
Al-Haramain has consistently denied links with militant groups.
While the US has accepted that the charity is legitimate it has challenged the actions of some of its branches and members.
The Saudi government has been under pressure from Washington to act against the charities since the September 11 attacks.
The embassy said a national commission ”will take over all aspects of private overseas aid operations and assume responsibility for the distribution of private charitable donations from Saudi Arabia”.
Saudi entrepreneurs are among the biggest backers of Hamas, the Palestinian group responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel. But the government is unlikely to block this because it regards Hamas as a liberation organisation.
The Saudi interior ministry said on Wednesday that forces hunting three of the four men responsible for the Khobar siege killed two men at Hada, on the highway between Taif and Mecca, about 1 120km from al-Khobar.
The ministry said the two were ”key elements connected to this incident”, but did not say whether they were among the three who escaped on Sunday.
Saudi troops, backed by helicopters, engaged the men who were reported to have thrown grenades and opened fire.
In an unconfirmed report one of the men was identified as Abdul Rahman Mohammed Yazji, number 25 on a list of Saudi Arabia’s 26 most-wanted militants.
Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi security adviser, confirmed speculation on Wednesday that a deal had been struck at al-Khobar to allow the militants to escape.
He said they had tricked the authorities into believing they had rigged the compound with explosives and that accomplices outside would detonate them.
”The threat was that if they killed [the hostage-takers], their so-called brothers from the outside would basically press the button and have the whole building go down. That’s what they had threatened,” said Obaid.
”It was on that premise that they agreed to do the bargain deal. It was a deal, and the orders came from senior people who said ‘let them out’. It was basically a call between storming the compound and having more hostages die, or doing the bargain they did.”
The Saudi authorities only realised explosives had not been planted in the area after the men had left.
The US embassy in Riyadh said shots had been fired yesterday morning at two vehicles carrying US military personnel near the Eskan base, home to the Saudi national guard and where a US training unit is based.
The suspected militants had been hiding behind parked cars. The convoy retreated into the compound. The Saudi driver of one of the vehicles was slightly injured.
The US is helping train Saudi soldiers. European countries, including Britain, are helping with police training and counter-terrorism specialists. – Guardian Unlimited Â