Attack Thwarted on Saudi Security Facility, Four Gunmen Dead

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian police foiled an attack by unidentified gunmen on a security facility north of the capital, Riyadh, on Sunday, killing all four, a government spokesman said.

The men tried to storm a building belonging to Saudi Arabia’s mabahith security agency in the town of Al Zulfi, located in a conservative area about 155 miles (250 kilometers) from the capital, a spokesman for the Presidency of State Security said in a statement. Three police officers were lightly hurt in what the statement called a “terrorist attack.” The mabahith deal with domestic security and are sometimes referred to as the kingdom’s secret police.

The gunmen carried automatic weapons, bombs and firebombs, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel reported.

The kingdom intensified its counter-terrorism efforts after a string of domestic assaults by Saudi militants in the early 2000s. But while attacks have grown rarer, efforts persist, and two assailants were killed in an incident earlier this month in the country’s east.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul Abelsky

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