Saudi forces pursued Sunday the hunt for suspected terrorists amid high security after killing five Islamist militants in what state-guided media hailed as a major success in the kingdom's raging war on terrorism.
The Red Sea city of Jeddah found itself on the frontline for the first time at the weekend as security troops caught up with one group of fugitives in the aftermath of Wednesday's car-bomb carnage in the capital.
Four wanted suspects were gunned down in street battles on Thursday-Friday and a fifth man, yet to be identified, blew himself up, the interior ministry said.
"The security forces will continue their work as before across all the kingdom," vowed regional governor Prince Abdul Majid bin Abdul Aziz in comments published Saturday by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Top officials have repeatedly pledged to wipe out the militants supporting Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda movement and 18 names remain on a list of 26 most-wanted published in December following suicide bombings which killed 52 people at residential compounds in Riyadh in May and November 2003.
"We are all security agents now," the prince added during an overnight hospital visit to security troops and civilians wounded in the Jeddah fighting.
SPA did not say exactly how many people had been hurt.
"The security services on Friday recorded a major achievement by eliminating five terrorists, one of whom blew himself up," Okaz newspaper said.
Four of them -- all Saudis -- were named as Ahmed Abderrahman al-Fadli, Mustapha Ibrahim Mubaraki, Talal Anbar Ahmed Anbari and Khaled Mubarak al-Qorashi.
They were numbers seven, 15, 20 and 12 respectively on the most-wanted list.
"This major achievement was applauded by citizens and women ululated as they watched from behind their house windows," in Jeddah's Al-Safa quarter, the daily added.
"The riposte from the security services to this lost gang which practices terrorism under the cover of Islam came just a day after the suicide attack," which left at least five people dead and 145 wounded at a security building in Riayd, noted Al-Jazirah.
"The sacrifices that members of the security services agree to are enormous, but the era when terrorism flourished will fade and stop," said Al-Riyadh.
But on the ground, security measures were tightened again.
A group linked to the Al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks.
The "Brigades of the Two Holy Mosques in the Arabian Peninsula" said they had "succeeded in blowing up the headquarters of the special security and anti-terrorism forces related to the interior ministry."
The group, which has claimed previous attacks, said in a message posted on the internet that it "will not forget the blood of the martyrs" shed in the anti-terror hunt by security forces.
"Our wounds can only be healed by jihad (holy war)," said the statement whose authenticity could not be verified.
All cars passing by the interior ministry building in Riyadh were being stopped and searched on Saturday, a correspondent reported.
And people entering the capital's two landmark shopping malls, the Faisaliah and the Kingdom centres, were being frisked and their bags systematically searched.
However, a correspondent for Jeddah's Arab News made a mockery of heightened security measures at the city's hotels by entering upper floors and rooms unchallenged, despite carrying bags and a long black sleeve similar to a rifle case and leaving a business card behind to prove it.
"The head of security, clearly shaken by the ease with which security arrangements had been breached, explained, to the reporters amazement: 'We don’t have the right to search anyone entering the hotel,'" the paper said.
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