Saudi gunmen attack US personnel

Violence has flared up again in Saudi Arabia, with shots fired at American soldiers in Riyadh and clashes in the west of the Gulf state.

US sources said two vehicles carrying military training personnel were targeted as they drove out of Eskan housing compound, injuring one driver.

Separately, Saudi forces killed two gunmen who had opened fire on police in the western region of Taif.

The attacks follow new al-Qaeda threats to rid the region of non-Muslims.

On Saturday and Sunday a gang killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, in a shooting and hostage-taking rampage in the eastern city of Khobar.

Police have conducted raids throughout the kingdom

An interior ministry statement quoted by Reuters news agency said the men killed on Wednesday were connected to that attack.

It is not clear what the connection may be, but Saudi-owned television station al-Arabiya said the pair were al-Qaeda gunmen.

Security forces began chasing them by car and helicopter through the mountainous Taif region on Tuesday evening after they opened fire at a checkpoint.

Guns and ammunition were found on their bodies and one of them was disguised as a woman, al-Arabiya reported.

Khobar questions

Police are continuing a massive hunt for the perpetrators of the Khobar shooting spree and hostage-taking that ended in carnage on Sunday.

More details have emerged about how three of the attackers escaped a siege by large numbers of security forces.

It was a deal and the orders came from senior people Security adviser to Saudi royal family

A security adviser to the Saudi royal family, Nawaf Obaid, said the Saudi authorities had been fooled into believing that accomplices would blow up the entire housing compound where the militants were holding dozens of hostages.

"It was a deal, and the orders came from senior people who said: 'Let them out'," he said in remarks quoted by Reuters.

"It was basically a call between storming the compound and having more hostages die, or doing the bargain they did."

The attackers had already killed 22 people with guns and knives, most of them foreigners whom the attackers had identified as non-Muslims.

It is still not clear how the gunmen entered the heavily fortified luxury Oasis Resort compound, where most of the victims died.

The leader of the gunmen was wounded and arrested, the Saudi interior ministry has said.

Foreigners' fears

BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood says many expatriates in Saudi Arabia must now be wondering if the authorities there are capable of guaranteeing their security.

The official American advice remains for US citizens to leave the kingdom. Britain says travel to Saudi Arabia is to be avoided if at all possible and British officials have been predicting that more attacks are on the way.

Crude oil prices have surged to record prices as the Khobar attack stoked fears of turmoil in the world's largest exporter.

Representatives of the oil exporters cartel Opec are gathering in the Lebanese capital Beirut for discussions on how to cool the market.