Two al-Qaeda Suspects Blow Themselves Up in Saudi Gvt’ Building

Two suspected al-Qaeda militants blew themselves up after being surrounded inside a government building in southern Saudi Arabia early Saturday, following an attack on a border post with Yemen, Saudi-owned al-Arabia television reported on its website.

Al-Arabiya quoted unnamed sources as saying the militants blew themselves up in the Sharurah area near the Wadia border post with Yemen.

The militants had put up “stiff resistance” to security forces surrounding them, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades at security forces.

There were no reports of casualties among Saudi security forces.

Saudi security forces had been searching buildings for militants who had fled after the attack, in which six people, including one suicide bomber and two security personnel, were killed.

On Friday, gunmen killed the commander of a border patrol on the Saudi side of the Wadia border post, where three of the attackers also died in an ensuing firefight, Saudi state news agency SPA said.

The agency said security forces had arrested one of the gunmen and were searching for one or two others believed to be hiding in the area.

Earlier, Yemen’s state agency Saba reported that a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into the Yemeni side of the Wadia border crossing, killing himself as well as one soldier, and wounding another.

Saba said, citing a military source, that after the attack, Yemeni security forces chased militants who fled from the scene in two cars into the desert.

However, a Yemeni official, apparently referring to the same incident, earlier told Reuters the gunmen had escaped into Saudi Arabia after attacking the Yemeni border post. In addition, the official said the attackers were al-Qaeda militants.

Saudi Arabia said in May it had detained 62 suspected al-Qaeda militants with links to extremists in Syria and Yemen who it said it believed were plotting attacks on government and foreign targets in the kingdom.