Saudi police kill terror suspects

Four Saudi militants with suspected links to al Qaeda have been killed in a desert shoot-out with police on Sunday, the interior ministry said.

They were gunned down after attempting to flee in a car while hurling hand grenades, about 280km north of Riyadh.

Officials said they had been hiding in a tent where weapons, ammunition and documents were later recovered.

The operation was part of the kingdom's on-going crackdown on terrorism following a series of bloody attacks.

Security forces had surrounded their tent in the remote town of Nafoud Thoweirat, in Zilfi province.

No surrender

In a statement released to local media, an unnamed interior ministry official said the armed militants refused to surrender.

Three Saudi security personnel were slightly injured in the operation.

The statement said the four belonged to the "deviant group" - a term used by the government to describe followers of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.

It was not clear if the gunmen were on the kingdom's list of 26 most wanted militants.