"The gunnies started shooting towards security, which they responded to", leading to the deaths of a pair of suspects while the others "did away with himself by blowing themselves up with suicide belts", the ministry's front man said in a statement.
Police had surrounded the suspects' hideout between the holy city of Makkah and Taif on Thursday morning when the shootout occurred.
A simultaneous raid occurred on a hideout in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where two people were tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
, "and they are being investigated for their involvement in this cell", the front man said. He added that the raids were part of surveillance and followup, "including to what happened in Bisha on Friday".
At that time, two suspects died in a shootout with security forces who foiled a boom-mobileing in Bisha, southwestern Aseer region.
A third suspect, Iqab Mujab al-Otaibi, fled but was later arrested wearing an explosives belt, the ministry announced last Sunday.
According to the ministry, Otaibi allegedly took part in a deadly shooting at a Shia mosque in 2014 and a bombing that targeted security forces at a mosque in Aseer last year.
Both attacks were among several bombings and shootings claimed by the self-styled Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group since late 2014 in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
| Aawsat adds: |
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency late Friday that security forces tried to stop two cars but the drivers fled and took refuge in nearby mountains before one of the cars exploded.Al-Turki said the two continued firing at security forces, but were eventually killed with the help of a helicopter gunship.
| And from Khaleej Times: |