2 militants blow themselves up in southern Saudi Arabia

A euters Two suspected al-Qaeda militants blew themselves up on aturday, after being trapped inside a government building in southern audi Arabia, the nterior Ministry said, following an attack on a border post with emen that also killed four security men

An nterior Ministry spokesman said the two were part of a group of si alQaeda militants who attacked the adia border post on riday from emen Three of them were killed on riday and a fourth was captured after being injured

audi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil e porter, has long viewed its ,8 km border with impoverished, conflict-ridden emen as a major security problem and has been building a fence to deter militants and criminals

The nterior Ministry spokesman, Mansour al-Turki, said security forces surrounded the two men on the second floor of the local intelligence service building in al- harurah area after they had forced their way into the building on riday The militants, who Turki said had been identified as people wanted by the authorities, declined a chance to surrender

At an early hour this morning the two attackers resorted to blowing themselves up, Turki said in remarks carried by the state news agency SPA

The attackers made no demands, nor heeded appeals to surrender, he told a news conference later in the day

audi- owned al- Arabiya television earlier reported that the militants had put up stiff resistance to security forces surrounding them, fi ring automatic weapons and hurling grenades at security forces

audi Arabia has been wary of potential al-Qaeda infiltration across its northern border from ra , where militants have swept through the unni Muslim heartland close to the border with audi Arabia

To the south, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been waging a campaign of attacks on emeni government targets, raising fears the violence could spill across the border to audi Arabia

The kingdom as a whole is targeted, not only the crossing points, Turki told journalists, adding that audi Arabia would not allow what he called the deviant group a reference to al-Qaeda to achieve its goals

audi Arabia, which overcame its own al-Qaeda insurgency almost a decade ago, said in May that it had detained suspected al-Qaeda militants with links to radicals in yria and emen t said it believed they were plotting attacks on government and foreign targets in the kingdom

Turki said riday’s attack began when si militants in a car with license plates from an unspecified Gulf Arab country arrived at the adia checkpoint in the mpty Quarter desert area, which links emen’s adramout province with audi Arabia

The militants shot and killed the commander of a audi border patrol and seized his car They made their way inside audi territory toward al- harurah

ecurity forces engaged the militants in the second car, killing three and capturing the fourth The militants also killed two other security men during the clash, Turki said