Saudi Police, Militants Exchange Fire in Jeddah
Sat Jun 5, 2004 04:25 AM ET
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi police and suspected Muslim militants exchanged fire in the Red Sea city of Jeddah Saturday and the gunmen were still on the run after an hours-long pursuit, security sources said.
The shooting between police and the militants, who were firing from moving cars, came nearly a week after a major al Qaeda attack in the world's biggest oil-exporting country killed 22 people in the city of Khobar.
"Police pursued the militants but they managed to escape," one source said. "They are still hunting them down."
After initial investigations based on the car license plates, police believed the gunmen were known security suspects but were not thought to be on a central list of 26 wanted militants.
Fears about the security situation in the world's biggest oil exporter helped push world oil prices to record highs last week before producers pledged to hike output.
Friday, al Qaeda's top leader in the kingdom, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, called on Saudis to support the militants' campaign to topple the U.S.-allied Saudi monarchy.
He praised an al Qaeda attack in the Saudi city of Yanbu in early May, the killing of a German in Riyadh two weeks ago and Wednesday's shooting on U.S. military personnel near Riyadh.
He also rejected a Saudi claim that two militants killed near the western city of Ta'if Wednesday had links to the Khobar attack.
Saudi Arabia has been battling militants of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for over a year and Muqrin has vowed 2004 will be "bloody and miserable" for the kingdom.
Saudi's highest religious authority, headed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh, called on people to report any suspected militants.
"The committee calls on citizens and (foreign) residents to inform on all those who are planning or preparing to carry out an act of sabotage," said the fatwa, or edict, carried on the state news agency SPA.
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