Reuters
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Saudi Arabia has detained 88 people, more than half of them Saudis, on suspicion of plotting “terrorist” attacks at home and abroad, the interior ministry said yesterday.
A ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the ministry had been following a number of suspects in view of what it called the spread of “strife and sick ideas” that lured members of the community to “places of strife”.
Some of the suspects had links to the Islamic State group operating in Syria and Iraq, to the Nusra Front group in Syria or to the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen, ministry spokesman Major General Mansour Turki told Reuters after a news conference.
“They showed their support to the organisations in Syria and Iraq and also in Yemen, and they wanted to get involved in their activities. Some of them tried to get ... instructions of what he should do, how he should act inside the kingdom,” said Turki.
He said those who were in contact with militant groups overseas may not have also been in contact with each other.
Turki told the news conference that 48 of those arrested were Saudis and many had been planning assassinations.
The detentions included eight people whose arrest in the town of Tumair was reported last week. One of those arrested had been preparing sermons for use by militant groups in Iraq and Syria, Turki said.
The likely targets for assassination were government security officials, he said, but might also include clerics who argued against militant ideology.
Turki said that around 2,500 Saudis were believed to be involved in militant activities abroad, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.
He added that since King Abdullah in February decreed long prison terms for any who went abroad to fight, around 300 Saudis had been detained after returning to the kingdom from Syria and Iraq or being caught planning to travel there.
Riyadh has long expressed fears of being targeted by extremists, including by some of its own citizens, who have taken part in insurgencies in Iraq and Syria.
In 2003-6, Al Qaeda militants who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan returned to the kingdom and launched attacks on foreign and government targets. The campaign was crushed and hundreds have since been sentenced to prison.
Saudi King Abdullah warned on Saturday that terrorism would soon spread to Europe and the US unless it was quickly dealt with in the Middle East.
“Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” he said. “If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month.”
Authorities set up specialised terrorism courts in 2011 to try dozens of Saudis and foreigners accused of belonging to Al Qaeda or involvement in the unrest unleashed in 2003.
Attack on patrol sets pipeline ablaze
A small fire erupted on a gas pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia yesterday after assailants shot at a security patrol, security and oil industry sources said. The pipeline has been repaired and there was no impact on oil or gas production, the sources added.
The Saudi security source said the fire started after a stray bullet hit the pipeline when shots were fired at security forces patrolling the oil-rich Eastern Province. “It was a gas pipeline, it was repaired and there was no effect on anything,” the industry source said.
A resident in the Eastern district of Qatif said the incident had taken place close to a checkpoint at the entrance to the village of Awamiya, but that it had caused no damage to homes or other property. “It wasn’t very big or loud, but people in Awamiya and the neighbouring village of Safwa heard it,” he said.
