Four Daesh terrorists killed near Makkah

Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged Daesh terrorists and two others blew them-selves up outside the holy city of Makkah on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said. "The terrorists fired upon security forces requiring them to respond in kind to neutralise the threat, leading to the killing of two and the death of two others who blew themselves up with ex-plosive belts," the ministry said in a statement.

State-owned Al Arabiya TV re-ported that the security forces surrounded the group in the Wadi No-man area south of the city, showing images of police trucks mounted with machine guns around a walled compound. No civilians or security forces were killed or wounded, the ministry said.

In an earlier two-day security operation that ended on Sunday, two Daesh suspects were killed and a third was wounded in southwestern Bisha province. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, has been hit by a spate of deadly shootings and bombings targeting security forces and people since last year. Daesh's local branches have claimed many of them.