M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 26 November 2003 — Security forces foiled a car bomb attack here yesterday, killing two suspected terrorists in a shootout, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

“Security forces were able to foil a terrorist operation at noon on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the spokesman as saying. “The security forces were able to foil the terror plot by clashing with the terrorists and flushing them out of their dens,” the agency said.

“The shootout resulted in the death of two terrorists and the seizure of a car bomb, which was ready to be detonated,” the spokesman said.

Police, acting on a terror warning, had intensified security around the capital.

Saudi authorities were in the process of establishing the identities of the killed “terrorists,” and said they would provide further details later.

An eyewitness said three suspected militants were seen fleeing the scene and one security officer was injured in the incident.

The shootout came after Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom’s highest religious authority, urged Muslims to reject extremism and rally behind the Saudi rulers to fight terror. In their El-Al-Fitr message on Monday, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, had also called on Muslims to unite against terrorism. Saudi Arabia has launched a massive campaign against suspected terrorists and extremists in the wake of the May 12 bombings in Riyadh which killed 35 people including nine bombers.

At least 18 people, mostly Arab expatriates, were killed and 120 others were injured in another bomb attack on the Al-Muhaya Compound in the capital on Nov. 8.

Police have arrested nearly 200 suspected militants in nationwide raids following the bombings.

Two prominent scholars who were arrested for supporting militancy have withdrawn their controversial fatwas and condemned the bombings.