In line with the previous statements released by the Interior Ministry about the operations carried out by the security forces against elements of the deviant group in Dammam from Sunday, Sept 4 to Tuesday Sept 6, 2005, an official source at the Interior Ministry said:
Firstly: With the grace of Almighty God, the security forces pursued elements of the deviant group who were trying to undermine the security and frighten innocent people. The aforesaid elements, using forged documents, rented a building in the thickly populated Al-Mubarakiyya neighborhood in Dammam. When the security men, who detected them, asked them to surrender they resisted and turned down their calls for surrender. Taking into account the importance of ensuring the safety of people residing in the neighborhood, and after taking the required measures in this respect, the security men encircled the building rented by the deviant group, and cleared the area which included six residential units.
Secondly: Since the start of the operations on Sunday, Sept 4, in front of a commercial center in Dammam up to Wednesday evening, Sept 7, the battle between the security forces and the elements of this deviant group led to the death of five of the elements of the deviant group, who were wanted by the concerned security authorities, namely: Zeid bin Saad bin Zeid Al-Samari, 31; Salih bin Mansour bin Muhsin Al-Faridi, 22; Sultan bin Salih bin Hosan Al-Hassiri, 26; Naif bin Farhan bin Jalal Al-Jiheishi, 24; and Mohammed bin Abdul-Rahman bin Mohammed Al-Suweilimi, 23. All were Saudi nationals.
Four security personnel were killed during the battle; other injured security men were rushed to the hospital. Later most of them were discharged from the hospital.
Thirdly: The security forces found weapons including machine guns, pistols, quantities of ammunitions, hand grenades, locally made pipe bombs, telecommunications devices, calculators, a sum of money, 18 bags in addition to two barrels full of explosive mixtures, a truck, photographing devices and forged documents.
The security forces arrested 11 persons of different nationalities, who were suspected of having some involvement in this incident.
New developments in this respect will be announced.
The Interior Ministry would like to express appreciation for the cooperation of citizens and residents at the site of the incident. The cooperation and sense of responsibility shown by citizens and residents positively contributed to ensuring their safety and enabling the security forces to shoulder their responsibility in confronting the deviant group.
