BRITAIN: Britain says it has credible evidence of a security threat to its aviation interests in Saudi Arabia and British Airways has suspended all flights to the kingdom.
The announcement yesterday followed two clashes in three days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, between police and Islamic militants that began with a shoot-out on Sunday and continued with a full-blown gunbattle on Tuesday.
"There is credible intelligence of a serious threat to UK aviation interests in Saudi Arabia," a government spokesman said.
Earlier, Europe's biggest carrier BA said it had decided to suspend its flights to the kingdom, following consultations with the British government.
In Riyadh, Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi said the implication of British Airways flight suspension to the kingdom "will be very hard".
"It will send a very wrong message that Saudi Arabia is not a secure destination," he said.
As the world's top oil supplier, Saudi Arabia is vital to the world economy and the spate of bombings and bloody clashes there has raised concerns over world fuel supplies.
A senior Saudi diplomat in the Gulf said: "Whatever their [London's\] information, we are a country that protects our land in the best way we know."
British Airways, which flies to the capital Riyadh and Red Sea port of Jeddah, is the only British carrier with scheduled flights to Saudi Arabia. Flights to both were cancelled yesterday.
The Saudis said they had arrested 10 men in Sunday's clash. Britain said on Tuesday it believed the gunmen might have been planning attacks on British interests and that the suspects had escaped.
After further clashes on Tuesday in which at least four policemen and one gunman were killed, Saudi officials said they arrested five men and another seven escaped.
The Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, said the gunmen in the clashes on both days belonged to the same group.
"We are closing in fast on these terrorists and it is better for them to surrender and stop these attacks," he said.
Saudi Arabia has seen several clashes between the authorities and gunmen since the government launched a crackdown on Islamic militants in the wake of the bombing of a western compound in Riyadh which killed 35 people in May.
At least 16 suspects and 11 policemen have been killed in the series of clashes. - (Reuters)