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Saudi security force have killed two of the country's most wanted militant fugitives in fierce clashes in the northern town of Al-Ras, Al Arabiya television said Tuesday.
The Saudi-owned channel named the two men as Saud Homoud al-Oteibi and Moroccan Abdulkarim al-Mejjati, a suspected mastermind of suicide bombings in Casablanca in May 2003 who has also been linked to last year's Madrid train bombings.
Both were on a list of 26 most wanted militants published by the Saudi Government, which has been battling a wave of violence by supporters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network since triple suicide bombings in Riyadh two years ago.
Officials were not immediately available to confirm the report, but their deaths would deal another significant blow to a militant campaign which has targeted Westerners and security forces in the world's biggest oil exporter.
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said on Monday security forces had killed seven gunmen in the fierce gunbattles which broke out in Al-Ras, 300 kilometers northwest of Riyadh, early on Sunday and raged on into Monday night.
An eighth militant was critically wounded and a number of security personnel were injured, though most had been released from hospital, a ministry statement said.
A spokesman earlier said the suspected militants, holed up in a complex in the town's Jawazat neighborhood, had hurled hand grenades at security forces during one of the longest and bloodiest confrontations in Saudi Arabia's two-year security crackdown.
The battle erupted early on Sunday when security forces tried to raid a house where the suspects were staying. Witnesses said the house was secured by Monday morning but gunfire had erupted from a nearby building.
"They were asked to surrender, but those people are known not to listen," local governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz said.
(China Daily April 6, 2005)
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