Saudi police and suspected Muslim militants exchanged fire on Saturday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the gunmen were still on the run after an hours-long pursuit, security sources said.
The shooting between police and the militants, who were firing from moving cars, came nearly a week after a major al Qaeda attack in the world's biggest oil-exporting country killed 22 people in the city of Khobar. "Police pursued the militants but they managed to escape," one source said. "They are still hunting them down."
On Friday, al Qaeda's top leader in the kingdom, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, called on Saudis to support the militants' campaign to topple the US-allied Saudi monarchy.