Saudi al-Qaeda chief killed
2005-08-18 17:25
Riyadh - One of two militants killed in clashes with Saudi security forces in the holy city of Medina on Thursday was the suspected one-time chief of al-Qaeda in the country, Saleh al-Ufi, the interior ministry confirmed.
Ufi and the other unidentified militant were killed and a third was wounded and arrested when security forces came under fire as they tracked down suspected extremists in the city, the ministry said in a statement read on state television.
An expatriate, whose nationality was not specified, was seriously wounded and a security man was moderately injured in the shootout, it said.
Security forces had shortly earlier arrested nine suspects at other locations in Medina in the west of the kingdom, the ministry said.
The killing of Ufi had been first reported by Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel.
Ufi, one of the kingdom's most wanted suspected militants, was one of two men from a wanted list of 26 still at large. The other, Taleb Al-Taleb, remains in hiding.
The new chief of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Moroccan Younes Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Hayari, was killed in a battle with police in the Saudi capital Riyadh on July 3.
The ministry reported another incident in Riyadh on Thursday in which human remains were found resulting from an explosion after security forces tracked down a suspect and besieged a residential location.
It said it would release more details later.
- AFP