44 Terror suspects arrested
"The suspects were arrested over a period of one year. The operation began on July 20, 2008, and ended on Aug. 2 this year," said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki.
"Forty-three of those arrested are Saudi nationals," said Al-Turki. He said that some of them had received training in the Kingdom and abroad on the use of light and heavy weapons. Some had received training on mixing and detonating explosive materials. Others received training in counterfeiting documents and identity cards. Their ages ranged between 20 and 60.
An Interior Ministry statement said 17 Kalashnikov rifles, 50 machine guns, 42 cases of ammunition and 96 remote electronic detonators were also seized. The spokesman added that the detonators were located underground in two remote areas. One was in the suburbs of Qassim and the other in a valley near the city of Riyadh.
The identities of those arrested were not revealed, but Al-Turki said among them were individuals with proper technical qualifications and some with advanced university degrees.
"None of those arrested figure in the list of 85 wanted militants issued in February," he said. "We found 39 magazines hidden in a secret compartment behind a concrete wall inside the home of one of the suspects," he said.
Investigations showed that some of the suspects were in contact with senior Al-Qaeda commanders operating outside the Kingdom. Some were also in contact with local Al-Qaeda operatives killed in recent clashes with the security forces in the Kingdom. The suspects took advantage of charity works to plan and attempt to execute terror attacks in the country. Some of those arrested used their own money to finance their operations.
Al-Turki said that unless terrorism was eliminated from the roots, it would be difficult to prevent the formation of such terror cells in the future, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.