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| Arabia |
| Soddies kill cop-killers |
| 2005-06-22 |
| Saudi state television has reported that the security forces have shot dead two suspected militants who killed a policeman on Saturday in the holy city of Mecca. Citing a source from the Saudi interior ministry, the television station said the two men were identified early on Tuesday, as they were driving near the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. It also referred to the dead men as members of a "deviant group", the phrase the Saudi authorities use to refer to the terror network al-Qaeda. After being chased by the security forces, the men were surrounded in a building and died in the ensuing gunfight. Three members of the security forces were injured in the clash, one seriously. The policeman they are said to have killed - Lt. Col. Mubarak al-Sawat from the general investigations department - was shot more than ten times as he left his house to go to work on Saturday. The Saudi security forces had set up checkpoints throughout Mecca following the killing and launched a major manhunt for the policeman's killers. The authorities were said to have believed that al-Qaeda was involved in the killing, though that was never confirmed officially. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |