
These dramatic images may look like something from the latest high-octane action film but they actually show Special Forces soldiers taking part in a huge military exercise.

Members of Saudi security forces have been spotted demonstrating their considerable skills during a military exercise in the desert west of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

One astonishing image appears to show two men wearing black balaclavas and wielding massive guns leaping from the top of two moving police cars.

Another photograph shows a huge explosion in the background as a cavalcade of military jeeps rattle past, and another shows military personnel dangling precariously from ropes attached to helicopters.

The final image rather bizarrely shows a member of the Saudi security forces having bricks broken over his head during a military exercise.

On Tuesday Islamic State militants shot a senior Saudi security officer dead west of capital Riyadh.

The Western-allied kingdom, the world's top oil exporter, has been hit by a spate of deadly shootings and bombings targeting security forces or its Shi'ite Muslim minority since last year, many of them claimed by Islamic State.

Saudi state news agency SPA quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying that the officer, Colonel Kitab Majed al-Hammadi, was shot dead in the al-Arja area of al-Dawadimi province west of the Saudi capital.

Islamic State views Shi'ites as heretics but is also bitterly opposed to Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab rulers and is seen to be trying to stir up sectarian strife on the Arabian Peninsula to bring about the overthrow of its ruling dynasties.

The Nejd Province group claimed responsibility on Sunday for an explosion next to a police station south of Riyadh that killed one person and damaged police vehicles.

Members of Saudi security forces have been spotted demonstrating their considerable skills during a military exercise in the desert west of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Pictured: One astonishing image appears to show two men wearing black balaclavas and wielding massive guns leaping from the top of two moving police cars

These dramatic images may look like something from the latest high-octane action film but they actually show Special Forces soldiers taking part in a huge military exercise

Another photograph shows military personnel dangling precariously from ropes attached to helicopters as they hover over the desert