Arab News

JEDDAH, Dec 22: Saudi security forces have arrested an Al-Qaeda-linked group of people planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the annual pilgrimage, Al-Arabiya satellite channel reported yesterday. Informed sources told the channel that the arrests took place in different cities of the Kingdom.

“The group aimed to trouble the security of the pilgrimage,” which attracted nearly three million Muslim faithful from around the world this year, the television report said. Members of the group, whose number was unknown, were arrested “three days before the start of the Haj season”, or at the end of last week, the sources told the Dubai-based channel.

The new disclosure came after the Interior Ministry announced last month the arrest of 208 terror suspects, including 32 terror financiers. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the arrests took place following pre-emptive operations carried out by security forces over the last few months.

“Security forces foiled an impending attack on a support oil facility in the Eastern Province,” the spokesman said, adding that an eight-member cell led by an expatriate man was behind the plan.

The arrested militants also included an 18-member cell, which had smuggled eight missiles into the Kingdom in order to launch terrorist operations. “There was a 22-member cell which formed a special team to assassinate Islamic scholars and security officers,” he said.