Two guards killed in attack at Saudi royal palace

Two Royal Guards were killed and three were injured in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when a gunman opened fire at the al-Salam royal palace in the city.

The attacker was killed by palace guards, according to the interior ministry, which identified him as Mansour al-Amri, a 28-year-old Saudi national.

“An outpost of the royal guard came under fire by a person who got out of a Hyundai car,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

“He was immediately dealt with and his cowardly act also resulted in the martyrdom” of two royal guards, it added.

The Saudi ministry named the victims as Agent Sergeant Hammad bin Shallah al-Mutairi and First Soldier Abdullah bin Faisal al-Subaie.

The gunman drove up to the gate of the palace and opened fire at the guards. An AK-47 and thee Molotov cocktails were found on his person after the attack, al-Arabiya reported.

The American embassy in Saudi Arabia issued a warning to US citizens earlier, saying “Due to the possibility of ongoing police activity, American citizens are advised to exercise caution when travelling through the area,” the embassy said in a brief statement.

The warning come after the Saudi police raided hideouts of a suspected terror cell linked to the Islamic State group this week, killing two people and arresting five, according to the national security agency.

The State Security Agency said police raided three hideouts in the capital Riyadh and exchanged gunfire in one of them, the SPA news agency reported on Thursday.

Since late 2014, IS has claimed a series of bombings and shootings against Shiites and security forces in the Sunni-majority kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is a member of the US-led international coalition that has been battling the Sunni extremist group in Syria and Iraq.