RIYADH // A Saudi police officer has been shot dead in the Mecca region, the interior ministry said on Friday, after four suspected extremists died during a raid in the same area.
Corporal Khalaf Al Harithi was on duty on Thursday evening when he was hit by gunfire from an unknown source. An investigation is under way.
The killing occurred several hours after officers shot dead two “terrorists” in an exchange of fire at their hideout between Mecca and the mountain resort of Taif, about 80 kilometres to the east.
Two other suspects killed themselves by detonating suicide belts.
On Friday, the ministry identified the four, saying they had been wanted by police.
Saeed Al Shahrani, 49, was sought in connection with the suicide bombing of a mosque inside a Saudi special forces compound in the southwestern city of Abha last August. Fifteen people died.
He was also wanted over an October suicide bombing which killed two at an Ismaili Shiite mosque in the southern city of Najran, and the February shooting of a retired security officer in the Jazan region.
Groups claiming affiliation with ISIL claimed those attacks.
Also killed was Mohammed Al Inzi, 46, who was wanted over suicide bombings at Shiite mosques that killed 25 people last May and June.
Police said he was also involved in the November 2014 shooting of seven Shiite worshippers, which began a series of attacks allegedly linked to ISIL in the kingdom.
The other dead suspects were Mubarak Al Dosari, 25, and Adil Al Majmaj, 27.
Al Majmaj had been arrested in 2013 during a protest demanding the release of hardliner prisoners.
He was an associate of one of two men killed in a shoot-out with police who foiled a car bombing in Bisha, southwestern Aseer region, on April 29.
The interior ministry said Al Majmaj “disappeared from sight and moved around disguised as a woman – wearing a suicide belt”.
After Thursday’s raid police said they found two suicide belts, 15 other “explosive devices” and six firearms.
During a simultaneous operation at a hideout in the Red Sea city of Jeddah two people were arrested.
ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has reportedly described Saudi Arabia’s Sunni rulers as “apostate tyrants” and called on Saudis to rise against them.
The extremist group also considers Shiites to be heretics.
* Agence France-Presse
