Gunman kills five Saudi policemen

A gunman killed five policemen in central Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and police arrested a terror suspect on the country's list of most wanted militants, according to the Al-Arabiya television network. The gunman opened fire from his car on a police patrol outside the city of Buraydah, killing two policemen, the state news agency reported. He then sped 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest and sprayed gunfire at a security checkpoint near the town of Muznab, killing three more police, the agency said.

Police pursued the car and opened fire, wounding the gunman and capturing him, it said. Al-Arabiya reported that terror suspect Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Mohammed al-Suwailmi was arrested in Buraydah, 350 kilometers (210 miles) northwest of the capital, Riyadh. It was not clear, however, whether al-Suwailmi was the gunman captured after the killings of the policemen. Al-Arabiya did not specify that he was, and the Saudi news agency said police were still trying to indentify the captured gunman.

With the capture of al-Suwailmi, police have also now killed or captured eight of the 15 suspected militants believed to still be in the country who were on a list of most wanted terrorists issued in June. Some 21 others on the list are believed to be outside Saudi Arabia. Al-Suwailmi, 23, is an expert on the Internet and was involved in recruitment and propaganda for Islamic militant groups in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya reported.

Saudi officials reported in September that police killed al-Suwailmi along with four other militants in a gunbattle in the eastern city of Dammam. But al-Suwailmi soon afterward released an audiotape on the Internet saying he was still alive and Saudi authorities backed off their claims of having killed him, reports the AP. N.U.