Thursday, September 8 2005 09:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said today (Sept 8, 2005) that five Al-Qaeda suspects on a most-wanted list were killed in a three-day battle with security forces in the eastern city of Dammam, the latest in a series of offensives against the militants.

Four security men also died in the operation, which began with a shootout Sunday in a commercial thoroughfare in the main city of the oil-rich Eastern Province and ended Tuesday with the storming of a militant's hideout in another neighborhood.

The five Al-Qaeda suspects were Zaid al-Samari, Saleh al-Fraidi, Sultan al-Haseri, Nayef al-Jeheishi and Mohammad al-Suwailmi, all Saudis, some of whom took part in attacks against Westerners last year, the interior ministry said in a statement read on state television.

They all figured on a list of 36 most-wanted militants issued by the ministry in June.

Haseri, 26, was cited as having 'taken part in the abduction and killing of a (foreign) resident' an apparent reference to American engineer Paul Johnson, whose kidnapping and beheading in June 2004 marked the climax of a string of attacks against Western residents by presumed Al-Qaeda extremists.

Explaining why it took security forces a long time to the 'den' they had been besieging since Sunday, the interior ministry said the 'members of the deviant group' official terminology for Al-Qaeda suspects had filled the site, located inside a crowded residential neighborhood, with explosives.