Medina, Asharq Al-Awsat-Four suspected militants were killed and several arrested in gunfights with Saudi security forces on Thursday, security sources said.

Police surrounded a house in a district north of the capital Riyadh, killing two wanted gunmen inside and capturing another, sources stated.

Saudi forces also shot dead two suspects in the holy city of Medina to the west of the kingdom, and arrested several others.

Major General Mansour Al-Turki, Spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said security forces have this morning launched a number of surprise attacks in Riyadh and in Medina, targeting a number of hideouts where it was suspected that members of the dissident group were taking refuge.

The raids resulted in the arrest of a number of suspects, Al-Turki told the Saudi Press Agency, adding that the security forces were met with some resistance, but responded accordingly.

The operation commenced at 1.30am on Thursday morning, when security forces carried out surveillance operations in six locations near the Holy Mosque in Medina. Security forces were able to arrest nine members of the cell, but at a seventh location, the forces were met with heavy gunfire from three members of the group. Two members of the cell were killed while the third was injured and then arrested by the police. An expatriate and a member of the security were injured during the operation.

The four-hour gunfight in Riyadh began at 6am local time when Special Forces surrounded a district north of the capital. One member of the cell surrendered before the gun battle. According to the statement by the interior ministry, &#34scattered body parts were found during the raid in a Riyadh residential area, apparently the result of a bomb&#34. The statement said the bomb might have killed &#34one or more, which we are still investigating so as to identify them.&#34 A security force member was slightly injured during the armed conflict, the statement said, and the forces found &#34several guns, explosives, documents and money&#34 inside the residence when it was over.

The interior ministry also confirmed that amongst the militants that were killed was Saleh al-Awfi, 39, one of Al-Qaeda”s chief operatives in the Arabian Peninsula, who is believed to be the most dangerous by analysts.

Al-Awfi was born in Medina and after working for with the Saudi police and in the prison service, he left Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s to join Muslim fighters in Afghanistan and Bosnia. He reportedly returned to Saudi Arabia in 1995 after suffering from severe injuries. He had been responsible for training, recruitment and logistics, and running secret al-Qaeda camps in the kingdom. Al-Awfi is reported to have met al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan shortly before the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Since May 2003, Islamic militants have carried out numerous suicide bombings and kidnappings and have regularly fought violently with security forces. The attacks, which have tended to target Westerners and the residential compounds in which they live, have been blamed on al-Qaeda and its allies.