Aussie E
04-12-2004, 01:44 PM
From www.theaustralian.news.com.au
Blasts rock Riyadh
From correspondents in Saudi Arabia
April 13, 2004
GUNFIRE and explosions were heard in an eastern neighbourhood of Riyadh this evening as security forces chased suspected militants, residents said.
"A confrontation between security patrols and a group of wanted militants began at 6.30pm (1.30am AEST)," said a resident of the Sley neighbourhood.
"Heavy gunfire is being heard as well as blasts apparently resulting from rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades," he said.
Dozens of police cars were seen speeding to the area, but heavy traffic made it difficult to reach the scene of the clash, an AFP correspondent reported.
The last of a series of gunbattles between security forces and presumed Islamist extremists occurred in the Saudi capital a week ago. Security forces gunned down a militant and wounded another in the April 5 incident, also in an eastern district of Riyadh.
Both were wanted on terror-related charges, but neither was on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects, which has gone down to 22 since it was issued in December following a series of suicide bombings targeting residential compounds here that killed 52 people in May and November 2003.
Saudi authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on suspected sympathisers of the al-Qaeda terror network since the bombings.
Many suspects, as well as security personnel, have been killed in clashes, particularly in Riyadh.
Hundreds more presumed extremists have been rounded up across the vast kingdom, and authorities have reported seizures of huge caches of weapons and explosives, including hundreds of explosive belts.
With everything that is happening with their northern neighbours, you don't hear to much about the internal problems that the Wahhabi's are having. It would be a help is the Saud's could contain the militants, so that they didn't have as much free time to plot the downfall of the rest of us infidels.
Blasts rock Riyadh
From correspondents in Saudi Arabia
April 13, 2004
GUNFIRE and explosions were heard in an eastern neighbourhood of Riyadh this evening as security forces chased suspected militants, residents said.
"A confrontation between security patrols and a group of wanted militants began at 6.30pm (1.30am AEST)," said a resident of the Sley neighbourhood.
"Heavy gunfire is being heard as well as blasts apparently resulting from rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades," he said.
Dozens of police cars were seen speeding to the area, but heavy traffic made it difficult to reach the scene of the clash, an AFP correspondent reported.
The last of a series of gunbattles between security forces and presumed Islamist extremists occurred in the Saudi capital a week ago. Security forces gunned down a militant and wounded another in the April 5 incident, also in an eastern district of Riyadh.
Both were wanted on terror-related charges, but neither was on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects, which has gone down to 22 since it was issued in December following a series of suicide bombings targeting residential compounds here that killed 52 people in May and November 2003.
Saudi authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on suspected sympathisers of the al-Qaeda terror network since the bombings.
Many suspects, as well as security personnel, have been killed in clashes, particularly in Riyadh.
Hundreds more presumed extremists have been rounded up across the vast kingdom, and authorities have reported seizures of huge caches of weapons and explosives, including hundreds of explosive belts.
With everything that is happening with their northern neighbours, you don't hear to much about the internal problems that the Wahhabi's are having. It would be a help is the Saud's could contain the militants, so that they didn't have as much free time to plot the downfall of the rest of us infidels.