Saudi forces overpowered a group of gunmen on Tuesday night after a ferocious three-day battle in which officials said they had killed two of the kingdom’s most wanted men.
As the confrontation ended, an interior ministry spokesperson, Mansour al-Turki, said at least 10 militants had been killed ”and I would expect it to be more”. On Tuesday night, state-run television reported that 14 militants had died and at least six others had been captured.
”They [security forces] have complete control of the location,” Al-Turki said. ”There is no resistance any more.”
About 100 members of the security forces were injured, according to hospital sources, mainly as a result of grenades being hurled at them.
The battle, which was the longest and possibly the bloodiest fought by the Saudi authorities in their effort to eradicate supporters of al-Qaeda from the kingdom, began on Sunday morning when security forces raided a house at al-Ras, 288km north-west of Riyadh.
About 20 militants fought back with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and machine guns.
A senior military official, who asked not to be identified, named two of the dead men as Abdulkarim Al-Mejjati and Saud al-Oteibi. They were originally ranked 12th and 20th on the kingdom’s list of the 26 most-wanted al-Qaeda suspects.
Moroccan-born Al-Mejjati, who had several French passports, had been sought by the FBI since 2003.
He is said to have been implicated in the Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people in Morocco two years ago, and the devastating Madrid train bombings last year.
Others surrounded by security forces in al-Ras included Saleh al-Aufi, regarded as the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, and Talib al-Talib, another on the most-wanted list, the Jeddah-based daily Arab News said on Tuesday.
Despite the heavy casualties, the al-Ras operation appeared to be a significant step forward for the Saudi authorities, who have had several embarrassing failures in the past, when besieged militants have escaped.
Although the authorities have seized vast quantities of arms and rounded up hundreds of suspects during the past two years, attacks have continued.
Of the 26 suspects on the Saudi list issued in December 2003, 17 are now dead (including Al-Mejjati and Al-Oteibi) and three have been arrested. — Guardian Unlimited Â