Police Raid Apartment in Mecca, Kills Five Terror Suspects, Arrests Seven

Sunday, June 15, 2003
By Faiza Ambah

Associated Press Writer

Five suspects were killed in a gun battle initiated by the "terrorists." Two police were killed and five injured; and four bystanders were slightly injured.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia -- AP
The Saudi government said Sunday it foiled "an imminent terrorist" attack with an overnight raid on a bomb-filled, booby-trapped apartment in the holy city of Mecca that left five suspects and two security agents dead.

It was not clear if the raid was linked to Saudi Arabia's crackdown since suicide bomb attacks on May 12 targeting Western residential compounds in the capital Riyadh. The attacks, blamed on al-Qaida, killed 26 people, including nine Americans. Nine Saudi attackers also died.

At least five people were arrested in the raid, including two Chadians, an Egyptian and a Saudi, a Saudi interior ministry official said.

The unidentified official, whose remarks were carried by the official Saudi Press Agency and state television, said a number of other suspects also were arrested in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, 450 miles west of the capital, following the raid. He did not elaborate.
(More: AP / Tampa Bay Online)
2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan