RIYADH, Sept 23: At least one Saudi policeman and three militants were killed on Tuesday in a shootout at a hospital compound in the south of the kingdom, the latest in a series of clashes involving suspected Al Qaeda members.

An Interior Ministry statement read out on state television said five militants were involved in the incident, in which four other policemen were slightly wounded, in Jizan province near the border with Yemen.

“Two of the terrorists surrendered while three of them were killed,” the statement said.

“They were intending to carry out terrorist operations and were armed with machineguns and hand-grenades. They were asked to surrender but they started firing at security forces,” it added.

Police have had bloody clashes with militants since Riyadh intensified its crackdown on militants following the May suicide bombings in Riyadh which killed 35 people, including nine Americans.

A Saudi official had earlier told Reuters that at least two policemen were killed in the clash at a residential compound at King Fahd hospital. He said the gunmen had taken hostages but that the hostages were freed unharmed.

The official said that a Saudi national who was on a wanted list of 19 Al-Qaeda suspects was among those arrested.

The list was issued in early May shortly before the Riyadh bombings, which are blamed on Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. More than 200 people have been arrested in the crackdown and large caches of weapons have been seized.

The poor mountainous Jizan province is a stronghold for militants and is also notorious for arms smuggling.

Jizan is home to some of the 15 Saudi hijackers in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States landmarks, which Osama has implied Al Qaeda was responsible for.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Osama, is under intense pressure by the United States to fight terror and destroy Al Qaeda cells.—Reuters