Saudi minister: 90 per cent of detained terror suspects are Saudis

Jun 29, 2008, 14:11 GMT

Riyadh - Saudi Minister of Interior Prince Naif bin Abdul-Aziz said Sunday that 90 per cent of suspected terrorists arrested in security sweeps since the beginning of this year are Saudi nationals.

Of the 701 people of different nationalities have been arrested since the beginning of the year, 520 people are still in detention, Saudi authorities announced Wednesday.

Five terror cells, which were plotting to spread chaos by attacking oil facilities in the country, have been broken up, the Saudi minister told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.

The authorities in the oil-rich country had previously seized a message from Aymen al-Zawahry, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, telling a terror cell leader that jihadists from Afghanistan, North Africa and Iraq would take part in attacks on oil installations and fight security forces in Saudi Arabia.

'A planned attack on oil installations was on top of their priorities, therefore, we stepped up security to protect our oil facilities,' Abdul-Aziz said.

The so-called Islamists are in fact working against Islam, he added.

Unrest in neighbouring countries, especially Iraq, contributes to an increase in the threat of terrorism in Saudi Arabia, he said.

Terror groups recruit foreign nationals, who use Islamic pilgrimage as a guise to enter Saudi Arabia to carry out attacks, according to Abdul-Aziz.

Saudi Arabia has been engulfed in a campaign of violence involving al-Qaeda militants since 2003, leading to the arrests of hundreds of suspects since.