[b]Terror Crackdown in Makkah[/b]

MAKKAH, 16 June 2003 — A gunfight late Saturday night in the holy city of Makkah between police and suspected Islamic militants left seven people dead, including two members of the Saudi security forces.

Five security officers and two civilian bystanders were also injured in the gunbattle in Makkah’s Khaldiya district, while security services arrested seven people on a government wanted list.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said five terrorists and two security officers were killed and seven others injured in the incident, which took place on Saturday night. The suspected terrorists who were arrested included two from Chad, one Egyptian and a Saudi, the ministry said.

The shooting occurred just off Mohammed Saleh Gazaz St. in the middle-class residential neighborhood of Al-Khaldiya, approximately five kilometers from the Grand Mosque. Shortly after 8 p.m. a group of men refused to stop their car at the request of a traffic police officer, and then opened fire on police after they gave chase.

A witness said that it was during the chase that the two Saudi police officers were killed. The car carrying the suspects led the police to the apartment building, where the shoot-out is reported to have resumed after police forced residents to evacuate the building.

“Security forces raided a group of terrorists... who were preparing for an imminent terror attack,” the Interior Ministry statement said. The apartment where the terrorists were living was “booby-trapped and ready to blow up,” it added.

Police seized 72 locally made bombs of various sizes, in addition to several automatic rifles, guns, ammunition, communication devices, cleavers, chemicals for use in the manufacture of bombs and masks.

The suspects opened fire as police stormed the building in the third major bust of suspected terrorist hideouts since the Riyadh bombings, the ministry added. The spokesman said efforts were under way to identify the killed terrorists. The security officers killed in the incident were Yasser ibn Hasbullah Al-Mawlid and Fahd ibn Abdullah Wazna.

The three-story building was riddled with dozens of bullet holes, the greatest concentration below a first floor window.

“At around 9:45 p.m. I heard ambulances rushing to our area with police officers shouting through a hailer that local residents should stay inside their houses, turn off the lights and lock their doors,” a local resident told Arab News.

Arwa Mashat, another Makkah resident who witnessed the gunbattle, said that “by 9:30 p.m. gunshots were ringing out and there were police cars everywhere. I saw about 15 police officers who looked like they had been injured.”

“Ambulances kept going back and forth from the scene of the battle to the Al-Noor Hospital, the nearest hospital in the area,” added Hisham Bogdady, a local Saudi.

Six of the injured were admitted to Al-Noor Hospital, mostly suffering from gunshot wounds. “Here in the intensive care unit we have two people. One is a policeman, Sharaf Sultan Al-Abdali, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the back which damaged his liver, the other Zuheir Abdullah Al-Malki, a civilian who was also shot in back,” Dr. Samer, a doctor at the hospital, told Arab News.

In the orthopedic recovery area, Arab News met with family members of Musaed Khatim Al-Zahrani, a policeman who was shot during the gunbattle.

“Musaed arrived on the scene before the shooting began at the apartment building,” his brother said. “There was an exchange of gunfire, and he was hit in the foot.”

A civilian caught in the crossfire, Abdul Khaliq Rahim Sheikh, a 50-year-old Indian driver, told Arab News: “I was standing downstairs with my sponsor’s station wagon when three people approached me. They were carrying assault rifles. They ordered me into the car. I got in, but when they told me to drive them away, I refused and ran away. They started shooting at me from the car, shattering the glass which hit me in the face, arms and hands.”

[url]http://www.arabnews.com/?page=0§ion=1&article=27499&d=16&m=6&y=2003[/url]

The religion of peace at it again.

I've learned to despise islam and all things islamic

let those dogs kill themselves.

"Gunfight in Mecca"--one of the sweetest phrases in the English Lanuguage!

GunLvr