RIYADH, June 15: Five “terrorists” and two security officials were killed in a shootout in Makkah on Saturday night, Saudi sources confirmed.
However, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Sunday that five security men were killed in the clash.
An interior ministry source was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency as saying the security men raided Al-Attas apartment building in Al-Khaldiya locality in Makkah at 9:30pm on Saturday where a gang of terrorists lived and they were preparing to launch a terror act soon.
The terrorists fired heavily on the raiding security men as well as the citizens around the building, the source said, adding the security men responded by firing at the terrorists.
He said five of the terrorists were killed and efforts were progressing to ascertain their identity. Five other terrorists were captured, he added. He identified two of them as Chadian nationals, one Egyptian and one Saudi.
The source said Captain Yassir bin Hasabullah Al-Mulad and Fahd bin Abdullah Wazna, a soldier, were killed in the shootout, adding five other policemen and four citizens were slightly injured.
The source said the apartment was ready to be blown up as the security men found 72 bombs of different sizes which were made by the terrorists, a number of submachine guns, guns, live ammunition, cleavers, contact-devices, chemical materials for making explosives and head-masks.
It was reported that seven people on the authorities’ wanted list were also arrested. The London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, citing “diverse sources” in Saudi Arabia, said that eight security officers and three civilians were killed in the clash.
Okaz said the shootout occurred after a group of men aboard a vehicle ignored police orders to stop and took refuge in a building in Khaldiya following a car chase through the streets in which shots were fired. Police evacuated the building and stormed the apartment where the suspects were holed up, the report added. Inside they found a large quantity of weapons and explosives, while one of those arrested was wearing a suicide bomber’s belt.
