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| Arabia |
| Saudi forces, gunmen clash |
| 2006-12-07 |
| SAUDI forces clashed with gunmen in the Red Sea port of Jeddah and surrounded a building after two security personnel were wounded in an attack on a checkpoint. Security forces brought in helicopters against the gunmen and ambulances ferried the wounded away from the scene of the fighting in the city's Ruwais district, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said. “There was a firearms attack on a security checkpoint in Ruwais district. Two members of the security forces were wounded in the attack,” an official said. He said it was not clear if the gunmen were Islamic militants. He said the building was under construction. A Jeddah resident said the building under siege was near a prison where Islamist militants are believed to be held. The Jeddah correspondent of state-owned al-Ikhbariya television said in a telephone interview with the station that one or more of the gunmen opened fire at the guards of the Ruwais prison. A witness said scores of security personnel were deployed around the Ruwais area in al-Sharafiya district and around the Ruwais prison after the shootout. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has been fighting a violent campaign by al-Qaeda supporters to topple the US-backed monarchy since May 2003, when they launched suicide bombings against Western housing compounds in Riyadh. The kingdom said last week it had detained 136 suspected militants, including a would-be suicide bomber. Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz said on Monday the militants, who included foreigners, were planning a series of suicide bombings and assassinations. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 Who wants Saudi-on-Saudi violence to stop? |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-07 21:36 |
| #1 Things like this will stop happening once the Zionist Entity is gone. |
| Posted by: Jim Baker 2006-12-07 21:33 |