Saudi Arabia Says Arrests 520 Terrorism Suspects

The kingdom, which has faced a campaign of violence by al Qaeda-linked militants since 2003, arrested hundreds of suspects in 2007.

Saudi Arabia has detained 520 suspected al Qaeda-linked militants since January, accusing some of them of planning car bomb 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.

Among the detainees were some of Asian and African nationality. Some planned to use car bombs in attacks an oil and a security target in coordination with al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri who would send fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan and North Africa to back them up.

"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.

"They planned in fact to attack an oil installation and security target with rigged cars," it added.

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 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.

The last major attack by militants was a failed attempt to storm 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.

Analyst Fares bin Houzam said the arrests showed that Saudi security policy was failing to challenge al Qaeda's appeal.

The group, led by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, accuses the Saudi royal family of being corrupt, un-Islamic tyrants allied to the United States. The government condemns the group as "deviants" abusing religion to justify a campaign of violence that has killed civilians and destroyed property.

"The government is operating only on the security level. The efforts at the level of ideology have come to nothing," said bin Houzam, a former militant sympathiser. "I don't see any efforts on the ground, it's all just in the media."

Last year Interior Minister Prince Nayef made rare public calls on the kingdom's powerful clerical establishment to do more to stop Saudis falling for extreme Islamist ideology.

ZAWAHRI MESSAGE

The statement said the Eastern Province cell leader was found with a taped message from Zawahri.

The Interior Ministry warned Saudis last year to tell the authorities if they had received messages from the Egyptian Qaeda figure randomly on their phones or face consequences.

State television showed a cache of ammunition which it said the suspects had tried to hide in the desert.

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 haj pilgrimage.

Al Qaeda sympathisers -- boosted by calls from bin Laden to target the government -- have attacked foreign residential compounds, government buildings and energy sector installations since May 2003.

Saudi officials say about 144 foreigners and Saudis including security forces, and 120 militants have died in attacks and clash es with police since May 2003, when suicide bombers hit three Western housing compounds in Riyadh.