Saudi 'police killers' shot dead

Two alleged militants suspected of killing a police chief in Saudi Arabia have been shot dead by security forces, the Saudi interior ministry says.

They are accused of killing the head of a police investigations department in the holy city of Mecca three days ago, a spokesman for the ministry said.

The two men were stopped as they were driving near the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the spokesman added.

Saudi Arabia has been fighting al-Qaeda militants for more than two years.

"Security forces killed at dawn on the Mecca-Jeddah road two wanted people who are believed to have taken part in the assassination of security officer Major Mubarak Falah al-Sawwat," Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told the AFP news agency.

More than 200 people have been killed in attacks on government offices and Western targets since May 2003, when a bomb attack on compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh left 35 dead.

The interior ministry was quoted as saying a chase ensued after the two suspected militants were stopped in the early hours of Tuesday.

They were both killed in the clash that followed, the ministry said, while three security officers were wounded, one seriously.