Five oil plot suspects killed in Saudi clashes

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi security forces Monday killed five men linked to a bid to blow up the world's largest oil-processing plant who were hiding in a house in a Riyadh residential suburb with a cache of explosives.

The attempted attack on the Abqaiq processing plant in the oil-rich Eastern Province was foiled Friday by security forces when they killed the would-be suicide-bomber drivers of two trucks laden with explosives.

Security sources said that according to their information the suspects holed up in the Al-Yarmuk quarter of Riyadh, who battled police for an hour since being surrounded in the early morning, were linked to the Abqaiq attack.

"Five armed wanted men were killed today," a police officer on the scene told AFP. "Large quantities of arms and explosives as well as material destined to prepare car bombs have been seized" in the house where the suspects were holed up.

The suspects "used grenades in a bid to flee but they were prevented in doing so," the officer added. "The clashes are over. The (suspects') lair was assaulted and we killed those we found there," said another security source.

Ambulances were rushed to the scene but the area around the siege house remained sealed-off to regular traffic amid a heavy security presence. Two helicopters hovered over the scene of the hour-long shoot-out.

The names of the five dead men were on a Saudi most-wanted list of 36 Al-Qaeda linked militants. On Friday suicide bombers attempted but failed to penetrate the oil-processing plant at Abqaiq, in the oil-rich Eastern Province, leaving two security men dead as well as the bombers.

An Al-Qaeda statement posted on the Internet claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the two "martyrdom-seekers" in what the terror network claimed was a successful attack, vowing defiantly to attack more Saudi oil installations. RIYADH, Monday AFP