Saudi Gazette report

QATIF — Life slowly returned to normal in Abu Hadriyah in the Qatif governorate where security forces and a terrorist group fought for hours on Monday in a gun battle that ended with the death of two people on a wanted list and the capture of two others.

Al-Yaum daily visited the location after the battle and met with residents and eyewitnesses.

They praised the efforts of police officers who engaged the terrorists and foiled their evil plans. People said the police were the first line of defense working around the clock to ensure the safety of residents against criminal plots.

A number of eyewitnesses talked to Al-Yaum about the bravery of the officers who finished the terrorist group in short time. They described the difficult hours when the sound of bullets was heard from everywhere.

They remembered police urging them to leave the place for their safety.

An Indian expat told the newspaper, “I remember police were shouting at us to stay back and hide in a safe place, while they were running after the terrorists. The officers stood up bravely and we were happy when we learned that a number of them were killed.”

Nassar Ahmad, a Pakistani expat, said the operation happened late at night when they were all asleep. “We woke up hearing the sound of gunfire. Restaurant doors broke open because of the bullets. We lived through a very difficult moment. We thank Allah that it ended quickly,” said Ahmad.

Fatima Hussien, a 21-year-old woman, was at a gas station where the battle with the terrorists started. She never thought that when she slept in her father’s car she would wake up to the sound of bullets in the middle of a gunfight.

Her father had stopped at the gas station, just before the checkpoint on Abu Hadriyah Road. “Everything happened all of a sudden. Bullets were flying everywhere and it hit the front glass of our car breaking it immediately. I was injured in my head and started bleeding. My father tried to take me to safety far away from the location. When the battle stopped, I was rushed by the Saudi Red Crescent to a hospital and then by a medical helicopter to a hospital in Al-Khobar,” Hussien said. She was released from the hospital the next day.

The State Security released the names of the two terrorists who were killed in the attack. A statement released on Monday identified Majed Ali Abdulrahim Al-Faraj and Mahmoud Ali Al-Zarea as the two terrorists who were killed during the attack in Abu Hadriyah. The statement said that Al-Faraj was on Saudi Arabia’s terror list for involvement in previous attacks in Qatif.

Two other terrorists who were arrested on Sunday were not identified, as an investigation was still pending, the statement added.

“All the terrorists were involved in a number of terrorist cases that took place in Qatif, which included the shooting of citizens, residents, and security personnel, attacking public facilities, disrupting public life and carrying out crimes of theft, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and drug trafficking,” according the Presidency of State Security.

Out of the four men, three were on Saudi Arabia’s wanted list of terrorists.

The statement said that security forces in the Eastern Province caught the terrorists while driving a car toward Abu Hadriyah to execute an attack that had been planned.

When stopped and demanded to turn themselves in, the suspects fired at the security forces who then shot back.

After the terrorists’ car was damaged, they resorted to a gas station near the location and threw a hand grenade, which caused a minor fire at the station.

As a result of the operation, a Bahraini woman and a Pakistani man were injured at the gas station, along with two men from the security forces. A machine gun, two pistols, two grenades, a sonic grenade, and 66,178 Saudi riyals were found in the terrorists’ car.