Saudi police shoot and arrest man armed with machinegun

Saudi forces arrested a heavily armed extremist after wounding him in an exchange of gunfire in the kingdom’s heartland, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The man had embraced an ISIS ideology and was found to be in possession of a machinegun, a pistol and numerous rounds of ammunition, the ministry said.

The man in Al Bukhariya city was also wearing what appeared to be an explosives-laden belt, state-run Al Ekhbariya television reported. The incident came as the kingdom prepared to host the Hajj pilgrimage from Sunday to next Friday.

The kingdom’s security forces have suffered several attacks in recent years by extremist groups, including Al Qaeda and ISIS.

There have also been clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in the eastern provinces. In July, a drive-by shooting at a checkpoint in central Saudi Arabia and an ensuing gunfight left a security officer, a Bangladeshi civilian and two attackers dead, according to the interior ministry.

And in April, four Saudi policemen were killed and four others wounded in an attack against a checkpoint in the south-west province of Asir.

Last year, Saudi Arabia launched the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, which gathered defence ministers and leading security officials from 41 countries to focus on counterterrorism co-operation.

The pan-Islamic coalition is responsible for co-ordinating individual efforts to fight terrorism. A counterterrorism centre in Riyadh was established as its operational arm.

In a visit to the UK in March, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted the similarities between religious extremists and terrorists in an interview with British newspaper The Telegraph.

“The extremists and the terrorists are linked through spreading their agenda,” he said in the interview.

“We need to work together to promote moderate Islam.

“We want to fight terrorism and we want to fight extremism because we need to build stability in the Middle East. The British and Saudi people, along with the rest of the world, will be much safer if [Britain has] a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia.”