P.K. Abdul Ghafour • Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 18 June 2003 — Saudi security forces have arrested 12 terror suspects including seven Saudis, three Chadians and an Egyptian following Saturday’s shootout in a Makkah district.

In a statement yesterday, the Interior Ministry identified two of the five suspects killed in the shooting as Ibrahim Abdul Wahab Al-Nafeesa, a Saudi, and Abdul Hameed Trawry, a Malian.

Security operations have been stepped up in the outskirts of Makkah to crack down on further suspects. There were checkpoints all over the city and on the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway. Long line of vehicles formed as special security forces were checking IDs and inspecting car trunks.

In the operations in Makkah last Saturday and Sunday, at least five terror suspects were killed, four wounded and several others arrested. The ministry said the terrorists had been planning to carry out a major attack in Makkah. Two security men were killed while five other officers and four citizens were injured in the firefight on Saturday, it added.

“The terrorists were staying at a flat in the Al-Attas residential building in the Khaldiya district, where they had been planning an imminent attack,” the ministry said.

It said the terrorists opened fire at police when asked to surrender themselves and their firearms. “The building was booby-trapped and ready to explode,” the ministry said in a statement.

The arrested suspects were: Ahmed Abdul Rahman Haroun, Khaled Ali Muhammad Ali, Bashir Muhammad Haroun, all from Chad; Ahmed Khaled Al-Hosan, Musaed Ahmed Al-Kharaisy, Amin Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, Essam Khalaf Al-Ghamdi, Rasheed Abdullah Al-Khathlan, Majed Ibrahim Al-Moghaineem, Aamir Abdul Hameed Al-Saedi, from Saudi Arabia; and Muhammad Fatahi Al-Sayyed, from Egypt.

The ministry said the nationality of one person, who identified himself as Ibrahim, was yet to be determined.

In the building in Khaldiya, police seized 72 locally made bombs of various sizes in addition to several automatic rifles, guns and ammunition, booby-trapped copies of the Qur’an, flasks, communication devices, chemicals, cleavers, and masks.