Police kill 'militant' in Riyadh

There have been frequent clashes like this in recent months

A suspected militant and a civilian were killed during a shoot-out between Saudi security forces and armed men in the capital Riyadh on Tuesday evening.

Security sources had earlier said three gunmen were killed in the battle, which happened at a petrol station.

Two suspected al-Qaeda sympathisers opened fire at police after a car chase, the interior ministry said.

Security forces in the oil-rich state have been waging a campaign against Islamist militants since May 2003.

Many militants and security men have been killed in similar clashes since then. Hundreds of suspects have been rounded up.

'Weapons found'

A second suspected militant was wounded in Tuesday's gun battle, the interior ministry said. Neither of them has been named.

The dead civilian was an attendant at the petrol station.

"Security forces chased a car carrying two members of the 'deviant group'," an interior ministry spokesman in quotes carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"The car stopped near a petrol station inside a residential district of Riyadh. When security forces approached the vehicle, those inside it opened fire."

Automatic weapons, ammunition, explosives, forged documents and money were recovered from the suspects' car, the spokesman said.