Saudis report deadly border clash with infiltrators from Iraq
Four heavily armed men from Iraq attacked a Saudi Arabia border patrol early Monday, firing automatic weapons and detonating suicide belts in a confrontation that left three guards and all the assailants dead, Saudi officials said. The early morning clash, which the Saudis described as an attempted infiltration near an isolated patch of the Saudi-Iraq frontier, […]Ben Hubbard writes for the New York Times:
Four heavily armed men from Iraq attacked a Saudi Arabia border patrol early Monday, firing automatic weapons and detonating suicide belts in a confrontation that left three guards and all the assailants dead, Saudi officials said. The early morning clash, which the Saudis described as an attempted infiltration near an isolated patch of the Saudi-Iraq frontier, was one of the deadliest episodes of border violence for Saudi Arabia.
It was likely to raise fears of jihadist infiltrations in the Saudi kingdom from Iraq and Yemen — another radical Islamist breeding ground that shares a border with Saudi Arabia, which controls access to Islam’s holiest sites. Saudi officials said the border guards had suspected the men were trying to sneak across the border. When confronted, the men fired automatic weapons and detonated suicide belts to avoid arrest, the officials said.
