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Saudi says police did not fire in militant attack
Police did not fire a single shot during an operation that left six policemen dead because officers were not expecting to confront 'terrorists'.
Saudi Arabia said on Friday police had not fired a single shot during an operation that left six policemen dead because officers were not expecting to confront 'terrorists' at the time.
A total of seven people died after gunmen fired on security forces searching a suspected militant's house in the east of the Saudi capital on Thursday, a day before the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the governor of Riyadh, said police went to the house after the militant arrested on Thursday morning told them he had an arms stash there.
He denied police had been ambushed, but hinted they may have been surprised by gunmen who had prior warning of their arrival.
"There was no exchange of fire with those criminals," he told reporters after prayers for the dead men in a Riyadh mosque. "There was not a single round (fired) by the security men... because they were not expecting terrorists to come."
Five policemen died on Thursday and a sixth died later of his injuries, the prince said. The seventh victim was the father of the arrested militant who was accompanying security forces searching the house, he added.
The start of the five-day hajj, which has brought two million Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, is a sensitive time for Saudi Arabia which is battling a wave of militant violence.
At least 50 people were killed by suicide bombings of Riyadh housing compounds last year in attacks which were blamed on supporters of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said on Thursday police found grenades, automatic rifles and five revolvers in the house. It said a number of suspects had been captured, but one security source said several had managed to escape.
A government official described the man arrested early on Thursday as a 'very important terrorist' but said he was not on the kingdom's most-wanted list of 26 suspects.
Since the publication of names and pictures of Riyadh's top suspects last month - together with offers of rewards of up to $1.9 million to informants - one leading militant has been killed and another arrested, but 24 remain at large.
Much of the violence has focused so far on Riyadh, some 700 km (440 miles) east of Mecca. But several weapons caches have been uncovered in the holy city, where two million pilgrims embarked on the annual hajj rituals on Friday.
Diplomats say the Saudi government is worried militants will strike during the hajj to undermine the ruling family, whose authority largely stems from its custodianship of Islam's holiest sites.
