Riyadh, November 27: Saudi Arabia has arrested 149 people from 19 cells linked to Al Qaida over the past eight months and foiled attacks against government and security officials, the interior ministry said.
“In the past eight months 149 people linked to Al Qaida were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities,” interior ministry spokesman Mansour Turki told a news conference . The non-Saudi suspects were Arabs, Africans and South Asians, he said, adding that the thwarted cells had links to Al Qaida in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan.
“These cells have links with Al Qaida who are disturbing the security in Yemen, with Somalia and organisations in Afghanistan,” Turki said.
The ministry confiscated 2.24 million riyals ($597,000) from Al Qaida suspects, he said, and militants had tried to collect money and spread their ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
Turki also said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say if they included oil installations. The TV channel al Arabiya reported on Friday that the kingdom had also foiled plans to attack Saudi oil installations. A Saudi Arabian counter-terrorism drive halted aviolent Al Qaida campaign in the Gulf Arab country from 2003 to 2006.
-Agencies