This is a timeline of the militant

Militant

The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...

 incidents in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, derived from reports in the Saudi media and other sources.

The attacks have killed 91 foreigners and Saudi civilians and wounded 510 people, according to the Saudi government. 41 security force members have been killed and 218 wounded, while 112 militants have been killed and 25 wounded.

1979

• 20 November–December 4 (See Grand Mosque Seizure
  Grand Mosque Seizure
  The Grand Mosque Seizure on November 20, 1979, was an armed attack and takeover by Islamist dissidents of the Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam...
  
  ) - number of militants took over the Masjid al-Haram
  Masjid al-Haram
  Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām is the largest mosque in the world. Located in the city of Mecca, it surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while performing daily prayers and is Islam's holiest place...
  
   in Mecca to protest the House of Saud's
  House of Saud
  The House of Saud , also called the Al Saud, is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia and one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in the world. The family holds thousands of members...
  
   policies of westernization
  Westernization
  Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
  
  . The militants were well organized and armed and were initially able to repel attempts by the Saudi National Guard to storm the complex. The Saudis eventually brought in French
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   and Pakistani
  Pakistan
  Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
  
   GIGN commando
  Commando
  In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
  
  s to help their forces retake the Mosque. Non-Muslim commandos underwent nominal conversion to Islam
  Islam
  Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
  
   before being allowed into the Mosque. Eventually the Mosque was retaken and the 63 or 67 surviving male militants were executed. The number of people killed in the siege and the total number of militants involved are disputed. Official sources put the death toll at 255, but others suggest that it was higher. Ruhollah Khomeini
  Ruhollah Khomeini
  Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
  
   addressed on Radio regarding the seizure of the Mosque on November 21.

1988

• 30 September - four Shi'ite men are beheaded
  Decapitation
  Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
  
   for blowing up fuel storage tanks at the Saudi Petrochemical Company (SADAF) facility in Jubail
  Jubail
  Jubail , is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Old Town of Al Jubail, which was originally a small fishing village, up to 1975 and the new industrial area....
  
  . They had entered the plant by cutting a hole in the perimeter fence. One tank happened to be empty, but another was full and burned for several days. Eventually the fire was extinguished when a firefighting team literally plugged the hole in the tank.

1995

• 13 November - a car bomb
  Car bomb
  A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
  
   killed five US citizens and two India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  ns at the offices of the Saudi National Guard
  Saudi Arabian National Guard
  The Saudi Arabian National Guard is a separate military force of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is not part of the Saudi Arabian Defence Forces, due to its specific role as a counterbalance to the regular military. It serves both as defence force against external threats and as a security force...
  
   in Riyadh
  Riyadh
  Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
  
  .

1996

• 25 June (See Khobar Towers bombing
  Khobar Towers bombing
  The Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996, Khobar Towers was being used to house foreign military personnel.Al-Qaeda has incorrectly been described by...
  
  ) - the Khobar Towers apartment complex in Khobar
  Khobar
  Khobar is a large city located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf. It has a population of 360,000 and forms part of the greater Dammam metropolitan area along with Dhahran, which together have a combined population of over two million...
  
  , near Dhahran
  Dhahran
  Dhahran is a city located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
  
  , is hit by a large truck bomb. Nineteen US soldiers are killed and 372 wounded by the blast. William Perry
  William Perry
  William James Perry is an American businessman and engineer who was the United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994, to January 23, 1997, under President Bill Clinton...
  
  , who was the United States Secretary of Defense
  United States Secretary of Defense
  The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
  
   at the time that this bombing happened, said in an interview in June 2007 that "he now believes al-Qaida rather than Iran was behind a 1996 truck bombing at an American military base."

2003

• 12 May (See Riyadh Compound Bombings
  Riyadh compound bombings
  The Riyadh compound bombings took place on May 12, 2003, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Altogether, 35 people were killed, and over 160 wounded. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had started in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in...
  
  ) 35 are killed and over 200 wounded during a suicide attack
  Suicide attack
  A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
  
   on the Vinnell Compound in Riyadh
  Riyadh
  Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
  
  . There is a rumor that National Guard collusion
  Collusion
  Collusion is an agreement between two or more persons, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage...
  
   was involved; however, there is no proof or credible source to support that claim.

• 31 May 2 police officers and a militant are killed.

• 14 June Security forces raided a building in the Khalidiya neighborhood of Makkah. Two Saudi police officers and five suspects were killed in a shootout. Twelve suspects were arrested including two from Chad and one Egyptian.

• 28 July 6 militants — four Saudis and two Chadians — and two police officers were killed in a police raid on a farm outside of Al-Qasim. The four Saudis were identified as Ahmad Al-Dakheel, Kareem Olayyan Al-Ramthan Al-Harbi, Saud Aamir Suleiman Al-Qurashi, and Muhammad Ghazi Saleem Al-Harbi. The Chadians were Isa Kamal Yousuf Khater and Isa Saleh Ali Ahmed. Another Saudi wanted person, identified as Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Khalaf Al-Harbi, was arrested after he being injured.

• 23 September 3 militants and a police officer are killed in a gunfight at a Riyadh hospital.

• 20 October Police raid hideout in Riyadh and capture a large supply of weapons.

• 3 November Police surround militant hideout in Riyadh and kill two.

• 6 November 2 militants surrounded by the police in Riyadh blow themselves up.

• 8 November A truck bomb explodes at an Arab housing compound in Riyadh, killing 17 and injuring 120.

• 8 December an unnamed militant is killed at a Riyadh gas station.

2004

• 19 January Shootout in Al-Nassim District (Riyadh)

• 29 January One unnamed gunman captured and five police officers killed in a shootout in the Al-Nassim District of Riyadh.

• April United States Embassy issues a travel advisory for the kingdom and urges all US citizens to leave.

• 5 April An unnamed militant is reported killed in a car chase
  Car chase
  A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...
  
   in Riyadh.

• 12 April A police officer and one militant are killed in a shootout in Riyadh. Rakan ibn Moshen Al-Seikhan and Nasser ibn Rashid Al-Rashid are wounded and escaped. Both are reported dead on 4 July.

• 13 April 4 police officers are killed in two attacks by militants. Several car bombs are found and defused.

• 15 April The United States orders all governmental dependents and nonessential personnel out of the kingdom as a security measure.

• 21 April A suicide bomber detonates a car bomb in Riyadh at the gates of a building used as the headquarters of the traffic police and emergency services. Five people die and 148 are injured.

• 22 April 3 unnamed militants are killed by police in Jeddah in an incident in the Al-Fayha district.

• 1 May (See: Black Saturday (2004)) Seven people (two US citizens, two Britons
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  , an Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
  n, a Canadian
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
  , and a Saudi) are killed in a rampage at the premises of a petroleum
  Petroleum
  Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
  
   company in Yanbu by three brothers. All the attackers, dressed in military uniforms, are killed.

• 22 May German
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
   chef Hermann Dengl is shot and killed at a Jarir Bookstore in Riyadh.

• 29 May (See: 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
  29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
  In the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia, seventeen terrorists, members of the The Jerusalem Squadron, attacked third country national personnel of two oil industry installations, the building and the , and a foreign workers' housing complex, the , in the Gulf city of Khobar, Saudi...
  
  ) 22 are killed during an attack on the Oasis Compound in Al-Khobar. After a siege the gunmen escape. 19 of those killed are foreigners.

• 6 June Simon Cumbers
  Simon Cumbers
  Simon Peter Cumbers was an Irish-born freelance journalist working for the BBC who was murdered by apparent Al Qaeda sympathisers while filming one of the terrorist group's safehouse in Saudi Arabia.-Career:...
  
  , an Irish
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
   cameraman for the BBC, is killed and the reporter Frank Gardner
  Frank Gardner (journalist)
  Frank Rolleston Gardner OBE is an English journalist and correspondent. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent. He was appointed an OBE in 2005 for his services to journalism.-Background:...
  
   very severely wounded by gunshots to his head in Riyadh.

• 8 June Robert Jacobs, a US citizen working for Vinnel Corp., is killed at his villa in Riyadh.

• 13 June One US expatriate Kenneth Scroggs is killed and another Paul Johnson working for Lockheed Martin
  Lockheed Martin
  Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
  
   is kidnapped at a fake police checkpoint in Riyadh. A car bomb is also discovered on this date.

• 18 June US citizen Paul Johnson is beheaded in Riyadh. His body is found some time later. A few hours later security services kill five militants (Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, Turki Al-Muteri, Ibahim Al-Durayhim and two others). A dozen are reported captured.

• 23 June Saudi government offers a thirty-day limited amnesty
  Amnesty
  Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
  
   to "terrorists".

• 1 July Abdullah ibn Ahmed Al-Rashoud is killed in shootout east of the capital. Bandar Al-Dakheel escapes. Two policemen (Bandar Al-Qahtani and Humoud Abdullah Al-Harbi) are killed.

• 4 July The bodies of Moshen Al-Seikhan and Nasser ibn Rashid Al-Rashid are discovered. One had had his leg crudely amputated. Both seem to have been wounded in fights with the security services and died later.

• 13 July Khaled al-Harbi
  Khaled al-Harbi
  Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, is a Saudi national who was associated with Osama bin Laden's mujahadeen group in the 1980s, and is thought to have rejoined bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the mid-1990s...
  
  , who is listed on the government's most-wanted list, surrenders in Iran, is flown to Saudi Arabia.

• 14 July Ibrahim al-Harb surrenders himself in Syria
  Syria
  Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
  
  .

• 20 July Shootout in Riyadh. Eisa ibn Saad Al-Awshan (number 13 on the list of the 26 most-wanted militants) is killed. Saleh al-Oufi (#4), the head of Al Qaeda in the kingdom escapes from the raid on the compound where he had been living with his extended family.

• 23 July Amnesty offer expires. Six wanted people had turned themselves in.

• 4 August Tony Christopher, an Irish expatriate, is shot and killed at his desk in Riyadh.

• 5 August Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani
  Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani
  Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani was on Saudi Arabia's list of 26 'most-wanted' suspected terrorists.-Life:Growing up in the Al-Baha region, al-Zahrani attended the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University where he studied law, while working as an Imam.-Arrest:He was arrested in Abha by...
  
   (#11 on the government's list of most-wanted) is captured in Abha
  Abha
  Abha is the capital of Asir province in Saudi Arabia. It is situated at 2,200 metres above sea level in the fertile mountains of south-western Saudi Arabia near the National Park of Asir. Its mild climate makes it a popular tourist destination for Saudis...
  
   without a fight.

• 30 August An unnamed US government employee is shot at while leaving a bank in Jeddah
  Jeddah
  Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
  
  . No injuries.

• 11 September Two small bombs go off in Jeddah near the Saudi British and Saudi American Banks. Nobody is injured.

• 15 September Edward Smith, a British expatriate working for Marconi, is shot dead at a supermarket in Riyadh. No arrests are made.

• 26 September Laurent Barbot, a French
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   employee of a defense electronics firm, is shot dead in his car in Jeddah. Five Chad
  Chad
  Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
  
  ians confessed to the crime in June 2005.

• 4 November Unnamed ‘deviant’ is arrested in a shoot-out at an Internet café in Buraidah
  Buraidah
  Buraidah is the capital of Al-Qassim Province in northcentral Saudi Arabia in the heart of the Arabian peninsula. Buraidah lies equidistant from the Red Sea to the west and the Persian Gulf to the east...
  
  , Qasim region. Two policemen are injured.

• 9 November Shootout in Jeddah. On Al-Amal Al-Saleh Street, police capture four unnamed militants and seize eight AKs and hundreds of locally-made bombs. No deaths are reported.

• 10 November Government announces the interception of 44,000 rounds of ammunition being smuggled in from Yemen
  Yemen
  The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
  
  . One Saudi waiting for the shipment is arrested.

• 13 November Five unnamed militants arrested in Riyadh and Zulfi. A number of machine guns and other weapons are captured. Nobody is hurt in the gunfight.

• 17 November A police officer (Private Fahd Al-Olayan) is killed and eight are injured in a shootout in Unayzah, Qassim. Five persons of interest are detained. Computers, pipe bomb
  Pipe bomb
  A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
  
  s and SR38,000 are seized.

• 6 December Five employees are killed (a Yemeni, a Sudan
  Sudan
  Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
  
  ese, a Filipino
  Philippines
  The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
  
  , a Pakistan
  Pakistan
  Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
  
  i and a Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
  
  n) as five militants invade the US Consulate in Jeddah. No US citizens are killed.

• 16 December A call for kingdom-wide anti-government demonstrations by a London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  -based group fails.

• 29 December Two suicide car bombs explode in Riyadh. One outside the Interior Ministry Complex, the other near the Special Emergency Force
  Special Emergency Force
  The Emergency Force is a special operations counter-terrorism unit of the Saudi Arabian General Security. Similar units include the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and the French GIGN...
  
   training center. A passerby is killed and some people are wounded. In a resulting gun battle, seven suspected militants are killed. Two (Sultan Al-Otabi and Faisal Al-Dakheel) were on the Kingdom’s list of 26 Most Wanted.

2005

• 26 January Saudi Intelligence chief the 72-year-old Prince Nawaf bin Abdel Aziz is relieved of his duties, apparently due to his poor health.

• 13 March Saudi security forces in Jeddah conduct an early-morning raid that kills one (Saed al-Youbi) labeled as a terrorist. One civilian was also killed; five policemen were wounded. Three other suspects were arrested. One was thought to be Ibrahim al-Youbi.

• 4 April and 5 April Saudi security forces launch the major Ar Rass raids
  Ar Rass raids
  In April 2005, Saudi authorities launched a series of raids in Ar Rass that killed 15 alleged militants, and captured 7 others. More than fifty Saudi security forces were injured in the gunbattles.Among those said to be killed, were the following men;...
  
   against a three-house compound, 320 kilometers south of the capital. Fifteen terrorists, including Saleh Al-Aufi, reportedly the Al-Qaeda
  Al-Qaeda
  Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
  
   leader for Saudi Arabia were killed along with Talib Saud Al-Talib, also on the list of the 26 most-wanted persons. The gunfight lasted for most of two days and included the use of rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and other heavy weapons. Students at a nearby girl’s school were in danger from the fire and were evacuated by police who broke down the rear wall to their building.

• 7 April Using information from the previous raid, security services killed Abdul Rahman Al-Yaziji, number four on the most-wanted list in a firefight in the Southern Industrial District of Riyadh. The newspapers report that only three men on the list of the 26 most-wanted are still at liberty. They are Saleh Al-Aufi, Talib Al-Talib and Abdullah al-Rashoud.

• 22 April A group of four insurgents dressed as women attempt to bluff their way past a security checkpoint near the holy city of Makkah. Women are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia. The police gave chase as the group fled in their car. They were surrounded in a hilly area near Umm Al-Joud southeast of the city. Two militants and two security officers were killed in the resulting shootout, an unknown number were wounded. The battle took place as the Western Region of Saudi Arabia was conducting its first-ever elections for local government councils.

• 9 May Abdul Aziz ibn Rasheed Al-Inazi is arrested after a shoot-out in Riyadh. His is described in the press as a leader of the Religious Committee of the insurgency.

• 18 May The United States Embassy issues a message that revokes the travel advisory for Saudi Arabia that had been in effect for a year.

• 16 June Security services announce the arrest in Riyadh of five Chadians who were described as 'members of a deviant group.' The detainees, whose names were not given confessed to the murder of Laurent Barbot in September 2004 as well as a number of armed robberies.

• 19 June Lt Colonel Mubarak Al-Sawat, a senior police commander in Makkah, was killed outside his home as he got in his car on his way to work. Newspapers report the killing may have been a botched kidnapping
  Kidnapping
  In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
  
   attempt.

• 21 June The killers of Lt Colonel Mubarak Al-Sawat are killed by security forces after a long fire-fight on the Old Makkah Road in the Holy City. Mansour Al-Thubaity and Kamal Foudah, both Saudi nationals, were fired on while fleeing police in a car, took another car and finally were killed while hiding in a building in a residential area. Three policemen were injured, one of them seriously.
• 24 June An internet site linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq
  Al-Qaeda in Iraq
  Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a popular name for the Iraqi division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency....
  
   reports that Abdullah al-Rashoud, one of the few persons on the list of 26 Saudis most wanted has been killed by a US bomb. If true, this would leave only two persons ( Saleh Al-Aufi, the alleged leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, and Taleb Al-Taleb) on that list unaccounted for.

• 29 June The security services issues two new lists of wanted persons. List A includes 15 names of persons suspected of terrorist affiliations and who are thought to be in the Kingdom. List B is of 21 names of persons suspected of terrorist affiliation, who are thought to be outside the Kingdom.

List A
Younus Mohamed Al-Hiyari, 36, Moroccan. Killed 3 July 2005. Fahd Farraj Al-Juwair, 35, Saudi. Zaid Saad Al-Samary, 31, Saudi. Abdul Rahman Saleh Al-Miteb, 26, Saudi. (See entry for 28 December 2005) Saleh Mansour Al-Harbi, 22, Saudi. Sultan Saleh Al-Hasry, 26, Saudi. Mohamed Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, 23, Saudi. Mohamed Saleh Al-Ghaith, 23, Saudi. Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwaijeri, 21, Saudi. Mohamed Saeed Al-Amry, 25, Saudi. Captured 25 July 2005 Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Motair, 21, Saudi. Walid Mutlaq Al-Radadi, 21, Saudi. Naif Farhan Al-Shammary, 24, Saudi. Majed Hamid Al-Hasry, 29, Saudi. Abdullah Muhaya Al-Shammary, 24, Saudi


List B Noor Mohamed Moussa, 21, Chadian. Manour Mohamed Yousef, 24, Chadian. Othman Mohamed Kourani, 23, Chadian. Mohsen Ayed Al-Fadhli, 25, Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

i. Abdullah Walad Mohamed Sayyed, 37, Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

n. Zaid Hassan Humaid, 34, Yemeni. Fahd Saleh Al-Mahyani, 24, Saudi. Adnan Abdullah Al-Sharief, 28, Saudi. Marzouq Faisal Al-Otaibi, 32, Saudi. Adel Abdullateef Al-Sanie, 27, Saudi. Mohamed Abdul Rahman Al-Dhait, 21, Saudi. Sultan Sunaitan Al-Dhait, 24, Saudi. Saleh Saeed Al-Ghamdi, 40, Saudi. Faiz Ibrahim Ayub, 30, Saudi. (See entry for 1 July 2005) Khaled Mohamed Al-Harbi, 29, Saudi. Mohamed Othman Al-Zahrani, 44, Saudi. Abdullah Mohamed Al-Rumayan, 27, Saudi. Mohamed Saleh Al-Rashoudi, 24, Saudi. Saad Mohamed Al-Shahry, 31, Saudi. Ali Matir Al-Osaimy, 23, Saudi. Faris Abdullah Al-Dhahiry, 22, Saudi. (See entry for 1 July 2005)

• 1 July Newspapers report that Faiz Ibrahim Ayub (name 14 on list B) turned himself to a Saudi embassy, perhaps in Beirut
  Beirut
  Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
  
  . The government denies this.

The family of Faris Abdullah Al-Dhahiry (Name 22 on list B) claim he had been killed in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 in November 2004.

• 3 July Younus Mohamed Al-Hiyari (The first name on List A) is killed in a shoot-out with police in eastern Riyadh. Six police officers were injured in the clash which included the use of homemade bombs by the militants. Three men were arrested, but their names were not immediately released.

• 19 July Saudi Security forces capture a weapons cache in Al-Kharj south of Riyadh. The store included 1,900 kg of fertilizer
  Fertilizer
  Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
  
  , 125 kg of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, potassium nitrate
  Potassium nitrate
  Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...
  
   and other chemicals used by suspected Al-Qaeda militants to make bombs.
• 20 July The US Embassy warns US citizens in Saudi Arabia to lower their profile and be on alert due to intelligence indicating preparations were being made for a terrorist attack.
• 25 July Mohamed Saeed Al-Amry (number ten on List A) is captured in Madinah along with two unnamed others. He was carrying an explosive device when he was captured.

The US Embassy restricts the travel of US military personnel in the Kingdom to home and office only in light of intelligence indicating planning for a militant strike.

• 1 August King Fahad dies and is succeeded by his half-brother Abdullah. Pundits predict no change in government policy as the crown prince had managed national affairs for several years during the king's illness.

• 8 August United States, United Kingdom, Australian and New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
   embassies and consulates close for two days in response to intelligence. Reuters
  Reuters
  Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
  
   reports the British government believe a militant attack to be in the final stages of preparation. Saudi security forces increase activity across the kingdom with additional checkpoints presence. Military facilities increase security also. No militant activity or arrests are reported in the press.
• 18 August Saudi Security Forces conducted six raids around the kingdom killing four and capturing an unknown number of fighters. During one of these actions, Saleh al-Oufi is reportedly killed in Madinah. He was the fourth name on the original list of 26 most-wanted persons and has been described as the Al-Qaeda chief in the kingdom. He had narrowly escaped capture last year. His death leaves on one person on that list unaccounted for.

Newspapers also reported that Farraj Al-Juwait was killed by police near exit five on the Ring Road in Riyadh. Reports mistakenly indicate that this name was on one of the recent lists of most-wanted militants.

• 3 December Seventeen unnamed "terror suspect"s are arrested in a series of raids in Riyadh, Al-Kharj and Majmaa. The security services also claimed to have captured an undisclosed amount af explosives and weaponry.

• 28 December In separate incidents, Saudi security forces killed two wanted militants in Qassim.

Abdul Rahman Saleh Al-Miteb, (#4 on List A) was killed in Um Khashba after a routine traffic stop led to his killing two highway patrolmen. This set off a running gunfight that killed three more police officers. He was killed by gunfire, his body was holding an automatic weapon and a hand grenade.

Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi died in custody from his wounds after being captured elsewhere in the region. He was described as a computer expert who managed insurgent websites.

2006

• 24 February Saudi security forces have thwarted an attempted suicide attack at an oil processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, Saudi security sources told CNN
  CNN
  Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
  
  . Two pick-up trucks carrying two would-be bombers tried to enter the side gate to the Abqaiq
  Abqaiq
  Abqaiq, or in Arabic Bqaiq , is a Saudi Aramco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. The camp was built in the 1940s by ARAMCO...
  
   plant in the Eastern Province, the largest oil processing facilities in the world (more than 60% of Saudi production), but the attackers detonated their explosives after security guards fired on them, according to statements from Saudi's interior and oil ministries. According to Saudi sources, the plant was not damaged and only minor damage to one small (1.5 inch) pipeline was caused by splinters, along with serious injuries among security guards and minor injuries among a few Aramco plant workers.

The dead suspects were later named as Muhammed Al-Gaith and Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri. Two members of the security forces were also killed in the fight.

• 27 February In a series of predawn raids sparked by the attack on Abqaiq, Saudi security forces killed five unnamed militants (in Al-Yarmouk) and captured another (in Al-Rawabi). In addition, three people were killed by the police at a vehicle checkpoint.

Initial reports indicate that the checkpoint incident was a mistake, as those killed were Filipino guest workers.

• 26 October Security services announce the arrest of 44 Saudi nationals in Riyadh, Al-Qassim and Hail.

• 2 December Security services announce the arrest of 136 Al-Qaeda suspects, including 115 Saudi nationals. Calling the arrests "preemptive," they claim that at least one cell of militants were on the verge of making a suicide attack in the Kingdom.