RIYADH (Reuters) - Three wanted Saudi militants on a government list of al Qaeda sympathizers were killed in September in a blast outside Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said on Monday.
An interior ministry spokesman hinted that the blast occurred in Yemen which is fighting both a resurgent al Qaeda branch and a rebellion by Yemeni Shi'ites, a conflict which has spilled over across the porous border with Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh has been fighting the Shi'ite rebels since they launched a cross-border raid into Saudi territory in November and is worried that al Qaeda would exploit Yemen's instability to launch attacks inside the world's top oil exporter.
The Saudi militants killed were on a list published last February of 85 wanted militants believed by Saudi authorities to be outside the desert kingdom, state television reported.
"The explosion occurred at a meeting which was attended by some Saudi nationals ... DNA samples ... revealed the identities of three Saudis who were on the list of the wanted 85," the interior ministry said in a statement read on television.
It did not say where the militants were killed or by whom. Al Qaeda militants operate in neighboring Iraq and in Yemen, where Riyadh fears the network will exploit instability to turn the poorest Arab country into a launchpad for attacks.
The dead men were named as Mohammed Abdulrahman al-Rashed, Fahd Saleh al-Jutaili and Sultan Radi al-Otaibi. The ministry said the three had been plotting attacks inside Saudi Arabia.
Asked about the blast's location, the ministry spokesman, General Mansour al-Turki, said that Saudi-owned newspaper al-Hayat reported in September that Jutaili was killed in Yemen.
Al-Hayat quoted sources as saying two Saudis including Jutaili had been killed in clashes between the Yemeni army and Shi'ite rebels in the northern city of Saada.
Saudi authorities are still hunting for 76 militants on the list. "Six were killed and three surrendered," Turki said.
"The information we have indicates that they (the remaining 76) are outside the country but we don't know for sure if this is still the case since they could sneak back into Saudi Arabia."
He cited an example of two Saudi militants from the list who were killed in an October shootout at a checkpoint in the south of the kingdom after they entered from Yemen.
Islamist militants launched a violent campaign to destabilize the U.S.-allied monarchy in 2003. The violence has subsided since 2006 after nearly 200 people were killed, including foreign residents, security forces and militants.
In September, the top anti-terrorism official Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was slightly hurt in a suicide attack inside his house by a Saudi bomber posing as a repentant militant.
(Reporting by Souhail Karam; editing by Firouz Sedarat)
