RIYADH (Agencies)
Saudi Arabia has detained 701 suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants since January, accusing some of them of planning attacks against an oil installation in the kingdom, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement read out on Saudi television said the detainees were part of a wider plot managed from abroad and involving militant groups seized last year.
The ministry statement said a total of 701 people had been arrested in recent months but 181 had been released for lack of evidence, leaving 520 in custody.
Security forces "carried out several operations against followers of the deviant ideology and arrested a total of 701 people of various nationalities," said a ministry spokesman quoted by the official SPA news agency.
"Security forces managed to arrest one cell in the Eastern Province led by African residents ... their concern was to get close to people working in the oil sector in order to find work in oil installations," the statement said.
The kingdom, which has faced a campaign of violence by al-Qaeda-linked militants since 2003, arrested hundreds of suspects in 2007 but because of a tough security crackdown has not faced any major attacks for over two years.
The last major attack by militants was a failed attempt to storm at the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province in February 2006.
Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter and held a meeting of oil consumers and producers in Jeddah this week in an effort to tame record world oil prices.
The detainees included another cell that was collecting funds in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, the scene of an attack on foreigners working in the energy sector in 2004.
"They were acquiring money by any means including theft and fraud in order to fund terrorist activities inside and outside the country," the statement said. "They tried to exploit religious sentiment in the country through Internet propaganda."
It was the biggest sweep of suspects since November when the authorities announced the arrest of 208 militants also planning attacks on oil installations. In December other suspects were arrested during the hajj pilgrimage. |
