RIYADH—Saudi security forces moved Tuesday to storm a militant hideout in the eastern city of Dammam during a third day of intense clashes that have already killed five Al-Qaeda suspects and two police.
“Security forces are attempting to storm the militants’ hideout and fierce clashes are going on” in the main city of the oil-rich Eastern Province, a security source told this scribe, requesting anonymity.
“Three armed men were killed Monday evening by security forces,” another security source said, adding to two militants killed on Sunday. Two policemen have also been killed, including one who died in a shootout Sunday, he said.
Security forces have since Sunday besieged what they call”members of the deviant group” — official terminology for Al-Qaeda militants — after a shootout in another neighborhood in which two militants and a policeman died.
Six to 10 militants are holed up in the building in the Al-Hamra district, according to local press reports. Security sources said on Monday the authorities had no immediate plans to storm the militants’ redoubt due to fears they would “go all the way” and blow up the building in a bid to cause maximum losses amongst the police. Unlike neighboring Dhahran, Damman is itself not an oil centre or a hub for foreign firms, although several have offices on the street where Sunday’s initial shootout took place.
The US consulate in Dhahran, home of oil giant Saudi Aramco, said Monday it would close for an undetermined period of time because of the “standoff between Saudi security forces and an unknown number of terrorists in Dammam”. A shooting and hostage-taking rampage in the nearby city of Al-Khobar left 22 people dead in May 2004. Four Westerners were among those killed in the assault, which was claimed by the Al-Qaeda terror network and came amid a spate of attacks on Western residents of the kingdom by suspected Al-Qaeda extremists.
The battle in Dammam is the latest in a series of confrontations between security forces and Al-Qaeda suspects who have carried out a wave of shootings and bombings in the oil-rich kingdom since May 2003, much of it targeting Westerners. A fierce three-day gunbattle in April in the town of Al-Rass in the Al-Qassim region, a haven for militants some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Riyadh, left 15 suspected militants dead.—Agencies