Saudis arrest 113 al-Qaida suspects

Group include native Saudis and infiltrators; planned to attack oil facilities

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saudi soldiers Mt. Doud 311 (photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Saudi soldiers Mt. Doud 311
(photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has arrested 113 suspected al-Qaida members accused of planning attacks on oil facilities inside the kingdom, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
Many of those arrested had come to Saudi Arabia on visas to visit holy sites or by sneaking across its borders, but wanted to join and organize attacks with al-Qaida.
Saudi Arabia has aggressively pursued militants since a series of attacks inside the country that began in May 2003. The country is the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
The arrests were the first to be announced since August, when Saudi authorities said they had rounded up 44 al-Qaida-linked militants in a yearlong sweep.
The ministry statement said the arrests were carried out over a period of five months. Those detained included 47 Saudis, 51 Yemenis, a Somali, an Eritrean and a Bangladeshi, the announcement said.
Separately, authorities arrested 12 people from two al-Qaida cells originating across the border in Yemen, where a local branch of the terrorist network has established a significant base of operations over the past year. Those two cells were also in the preliminary stages of planning attacks on oil facilities, the statement said.
In the last major attempt on such a facility, suicide bombers tried butfailed to attack the Abqaiq oil complex in eastern Saudi Arabia inFebruary 2006. The complex is the world's largest oil processingfacility.
In a more recent setback, a suicide bomber lightly wounded the Saudiprince in charge of the country's anti-terrorism program in an Augustassassination attempt.