The Saudi authorities want to destroy “terrorist cells” following the Riyadh attacks on May 12

RIYADH, July 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Six alleged “militants” were killed in a shootout Monday July 28, whom Saudi security forces in the north of the kingdom say were linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Security forces, which have stepped up a crackdown on fugitives from Saudi authorities, came under gunfire and grenade attack during a raid on a farm in Ayun al-Jawa in the northern Qassim province where the fugitives were hiding out, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

An Interior Ministry spokesman earlier said six fugitives from Saudi authorities and two policemen were killed in the shootout.

"The six killed and those arrested in Monday's operation are Saudi nationals belonging to the same groups linked to al-Qaeda," the official, who refused to be named, said.

The clash "left six fugitives and two members of the security forces dead", the spokesman said. Nine others, all but one of them policemen, were injured.

Police also arrested four people whom the spokesman said were the farm owners.

Before giving the order to assault, the security forces evacuated women and children from the farm and urged the suspects to surrender, the ministry spokesman said.

Security forces launched a second raid later Monday on another hideout in the same region, residents said. "Clashes are underway," a witness told AFP.

Four people were arrested on suspicion of hiding the suspects, and large numbers of weapons and explosives seized, officials said.

This is the third such operation since Saudi authorities launched a crackdown on suspected militants following May's suicide attacks on Western compounds in Riyadh .

The raid on the farm, near the town of Bureida , was said to have been a combined operation between Saudi intelligence and security police.

Saudi Campaign & U.S. Criticisms  

The Saudi authorities began a determined campaign to break up and destroy suspected “terrorist cells” following the Riyadh attacks on May 12 in which 35 people, including nine bombers, were killed, according to the BBC online news service.

U.S. officials have told the BBC they are pleased with the measures being taken by Saudi officials since the Riyadh attacks.

Both Saudi and Western diplomats privately do not rule out the possibility of another similar bomb attack, the BBC's Frank Gardner said.

Saudi Arabia reacted angrily to a U.S. congressional report last week which accused Riyadh of assisting those who carried out the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington , and of failing to co-operate with the U.S. intelligence agencies.

The White House has blocked publication of 28 pages in the report which deals with the alleged Saudi involvement, so full details of the accusations are not known.

But Khaled al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News in Jeddah, dismissed suggestions that the latest raid might be in response to the U.S. allegations.

"The government is more worried about the security and stability of this country," he told the BBC.

Such operations show the government's "resolve to relentlessly hunt down these people", he said.

He said the presence of militants were of great concern to a country "where there is no civil crime".