A three-day armed stand-off between Saudi security forces and armed militants ended yesterday after up to 18 militants were killed, Saudi officials were reported as saying. Commandos stormed a villa in which the fighters had barricaded themselves for two days following a firefight on Sunday at al-Ras, a town 355km northwest of the capital, Riyadh. The dead are said to include two leaders of an al-Qaeda cell whose names appear on the country's most-wanted list.Reports quoting unnamed security sources have identified them as Saud al-Otaibi, a Saudi, and Moroccan Abdel Karim al-Mojati, who is believed to have masterminded the Casablanca bombings in 2003. The stand-off at al-Ras was the longest-running battle between the security forces and Islamic militants since al-Qaeda took its fight to the kingdom two years ago. Police had chased a group of militants to a building under construction in a residential quarter of al-Ras on Sunday morning. Security forces cordoned off the area and laid siege to the building, but the militants responded with grenades and automatic rifles. Staff and students at a nearby girls' school were locked in for 12 hours until they could be evacuated to safety. Thirty-five members of the security forces are reported to have received treatment for injuries.
The Interior Ministry said the battle had ended, but declined to give a casualty estimate. News reports quoted officials saying 18 militants had died. The killing of Mojati and Otaibi will provide a further boost for the Saudi security forces, who appear to have succeeded in curtailing the militants' ability to strike in recent months. In 2003 Saudi security was caught unawares when militants linked to al-Qaeda staged their first devastating attack in the kingdom - three suicide bombings targeting compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh. Only three of 26 militants on the country's most-wanted list remain at large. The violence peaked last year, but since the killing in June of one of the group's leaders - Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin - attacks have become far less frequent. "Al-Qaeda is no longer strong in the kingdom," said Mshari al-Zaydi, a Saudi analyst. "It can still do damage, though nothing substantial. However, one can't say that it has disappeared or that all sympathy for it has completely evaporated."