DAMMAM: Saudi Arabia on Thursday released the names of five militants killed during this week’s operation in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia. The militants killed are Zeid bin Saad bin Zeid Al-Samari, 31; Salih bin Mansour bin Muhsin Al-Faridi, 22; Sultan bin Salih bin Hosan Al-Hassiri, 26; Naif bin Farhan bin Jalal Al-Jiheishi, 24, and Mohammed bin Abdul-Rahman bin Mohammed Al-Suweilimi, 23, all Saudi nationals. DNA tests were carried out to identify their remains before making the list public.
All the militants were on the recent list of 36 most wanted men issued by the Saudi authorities in June this year. Some of those killed during the clashes had taken part in attacks against Westerners last year, the interior ministry statement said.
Haseri was cited as having “taken part in the abduction and killing of a (foreign) resident” — an apparent reference to American engineer Paul Johnson, who was kidnapped and beheaded in June 2004 in Riyadh.
The security men also found weapons including machine guns, pistols, large quantities of ammunitions, hand grenades, locally-made pipe bombs, telecommunications devices, calculators, a sum of money, 18 bags in addition to two barrels full of explosive mixtures, a truck, photographing devices and forged documents.
Eleven persons of different nationalities were also arrested by the authorities. All these men were suspected of being related with the incident. The names and nationalities of those arrested have not been revealed.
These identified men were killed before the Saudi elite forces stormed the villa where apparently between six and 10 militants were holed up. No mention of these militants has been made in the announcement. However, it has been mentioned that some charred remains were found in the area.
Analysts thus feel that some more names of those killed during the three-day standoff may be announced later.
