Mohammed Alkhereiji • Arab News Staff

JEDDAH — The overnight shootout in Makkah is the latest in a series of raids and clashes resulting from the government’s crackdown on Al-Qaeda and its supporters and sympathizers, launched after the devastating triple suicide bombings in Riyadh on May 12.

The recent spate of terrorism-related incidents started May 6 when security services found a big arms cache following a shootout with 19 suspected terrorists at a house they had been using in Riyadh.

Interior Minister Prince Naif said the men — all but two of them Saudis — had been planning to carry out attacks in the Kingdom and had received military training in Afghanistan. The government announced rewards equal to more than $110,000 for information leading to the arrest of any of the 19 bomb-plot suspects.

But on May 12, terrorists carried out a series of orchestrated attacks against targets in the capital. By the following day, the death toll had risen to at least 34, with some 200 injured. The gunmen shot their way into three gated compounds housing Westerners and then set off a number of car bombs. A bomb also exploded outside the offices of a Saudi-US company. Many of those who took part in the attacks are believed to have escaped the initial raid on their hideout on May 6.

On the 18th of the same month the government said it had detained four suspected Al-Qaeda members and alleged they had prior knowledge of the suicide bombings in Riyadh. Prince Naif said the four men in custody were among the 19 suspected Al-Qaeda members identified earlier. He also said three of the nine Riyadh suicide bombers who were killed in the blasts were among this same group, while other members of the Al-Qaeda cell were still at large.

On May 21 the interior minister denied that three Moroccans arrested at Jeddah airport had planned to hijack a civilian airliner and attack landmarks in the Kingdom in a Sept. 11-style attack. Saudi Television quoted the prince as saying: “The truth is that those who were arrested were two Moroccans who were wanted over previous security cases.”

In a tape aired on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television, a voice purporting to belong to Osama Bin Laden’s top aide urged Muslims to intensify their war against “Americans and Jews.”

“The Crusaders and the Jews only understand the language of murder, bloodshed... and of the burning towers,” said Ayman Al-Zawahri, referring to New York’s World Trade Center that was leveled on Sept. 11, 2001.

On May 28, Saudi security arrested more bombing suspects. A total of 21 people had been held by the authorities on suspicion of involvement in the Riyadh bombings, the interior minister said. He said 11 of the detainees — including three clerics believed to sympathize with Al-Qaeda — were arrested in Madinah. The minister also said that Saudi police had by then identified six of the nine bodies of the bombers who carried out the attacks.

Four of them belonged to the group of 19 suspects who escaped arrest days before the Riyadh attack, he added.

Then, on June 1, the Kingdom announced the names and nationalities of 11 suspects detained over the Riyadh suicide bombings, but the list did not include the name of the attack’s alleged mastermind, Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi, whose capture had been mistakenly reported by a local newspaper.

Also on June 1, the Interior Ministry said police had killed a suspected militant and arrested another after the two Saudi men threw a hand grenade at a police patrol a day earlier, killing two policemen and wounding two others.

Despite these crackdowns, however, some commentators believe that many in the Kingdom are still in denial about terrorism. “People still relate to these events as isolated incidents because of the relative safety and stability that the Kingdom used to enjoy,” Mishari Al-Zaidy, a Saudi expert on radical Islamic groups, told Arab News. “If they do continue, there will be a general acceptance of this war, which stems from our society as well as outside factors.” He added the war against terror would be a challenging long-term commitment.

“If these incidents are going to be treated as mere criminal acts then they are bound to increase as time goes on,” said well-known columnist Turki Al-Hamad. “But in order to fully marginalize this threat, we have to explore the problem from its ideological and sociological roots. And that’s going to take time.”

“The recent crackdown on these terror cells proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Kingdom is a full-fledged partner in the fight against terror,” said Hussein Shobokshi, the well-known Saudi businessman and political analyst. “But I would like to see more cooperation from the West. Imams recently were fired for preaching hate. The same should be done in churches and synagogues.

“Terrorism is not exclusive to Islam,” Shobokshi added.