Saudis kill 'two siege suspects'

Saudi security forces have killed two suspected militants said to be linked to the weekend gun and hostage-taking rampage in Khobar that left 22 dead.

The two were hunted down in the remote Hada region of Taif in the west of the kingdom after they attacked troops.

In a separate incident in the capital Riyadh, two cars carrying US military training personnel were shot at.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile is to tighten control over charities to stem the flow of funds to militant groups.

'Al-Qaeda gunmen'

It is not clear how the men killed on Wednesday were linked to the carnage in Khobar, but Saudi-owned television station al-Arabiya said the pair were al-Qaeda gunmen.

Police have conducted raids throughout the kingdom

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

One driver was slightly hurt in the Riyadh shooting, when attackers hiding behind a row of parked cars opened fire on two vehicles coming out of the Eskan training base.

The vehicles belonged to US military advisers working with the Saudi National Guard, who sped back into the base after the attack. The gunmen escaped.

The Saudi government later announced new measures to curb the flow of money to militant groups.

Spokesman Adel Al-Jubeir said al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which is suspected of aiding al-Qaeda, and other private charities would be dissolved or have their assets taken over by a new national charitable commission.

"We are determined to crush this evil and go after those who finance it," Mr al-Jubeir told a press conference in Washington.

Khobar questions

Three militants were reported to have slipped through a security cordon after the Khobar attack which ended on Sunday.

A massive manhunt is under way, as more details emerged about how they had 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.

Foreigners' fears

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, who is in Khobar, says Western expatriates there are bracing themselves for the possibility of more terrorist attacks on their housing compounds.

It is now clear there are several units of al-Qaeda militants at large in the country, with no clues as to where they will strike next, our correspondent says.

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.