The Religious Policeman

This time last year, Saudi Arabia did not have a "security problem". It was official, Prince Nayif said so.

Westerners were being blown up by car bombs, but they were caused by a "gang war between Western "booze" smugglers".

The bomb attacks on 3 housing compounds in May changed all that.

Now we have wall-to-wall security, constant road blocks and vehicle checks.

Yet the attacks continue. Two policemen shot at the weekend. Now this, we all heard it going on.

Militant, Security Officer Killed in Riyadh Clash

RIYADH, 13 April 2004 — A security officer was killed and a militant gunned down during a clash in an eastern neighborhood of Riyadh yesterday evening, an Interior Ministry official said.

Four other security personnel sustained minor injuries during the shootout in the Al-Faiha district, the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.

Later police tried to track down three other suspected militants who fled, witnesses said.

The photograph shows the district being surrounded by soldiers. Yet some of the terrorists escaped. What remarkable luck, and what a coincidence. That seems to happen every time. There are unkind suggestions that some sections of the Police, and indeed of the Royal family, are sympathetic.