'Al-Qaeda' gunmen kill two Saudi border soldiers

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot dead two Saudi soldiers in a clash Monday as they attempted to cross into neighbouring Yemen, the interior ministry said. Ten Saudi militants who were recently released from prison, in addition to a Yemeni, were all arrested after they ambushed a border guard patrol and killed two soldiers, the ministry said. "Security forces were able to pursue those assailants as they attempted to cross the Saudi border into Yemeni territory," the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency, adding that four gunmen were wounded in a firefight. The ministry said the gunmen ambushed the patrol at dawn in the Sharura zone in the southwestern district of Najran. "All those arrested among the Saudi (militants) had been arrested in the past over links with the deviant group," the ministry said, using a term that is usually employed to refer to Al-Qaeda militants. It said they were "recently released" from prison. After a wave of deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia by Al-Qaeda between 2003 and 2006, authorities launched a crackdown on the local branch of the group founded by slain Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Many Saudi militants fled to Yemen where regrouped jihadists formed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- believed to be the deadliest and most active branch of the global network.