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March 31, 2006
Saudi Arabia: 40 Islamists Arrested In Raids
News from AKI and Dawn reports that over the past week, about 40 Islamists, suspected members of al-Qaeda, have been arrested in a series of raids by Saudi Arabia's security forces.
The news came on Wednesday, announced by a spokesman from the Saudi interior ministry. Eight of these were involved with the planning of the attack on the Abqaiq (Buqaiq) oil refinery on February 24 this year. "The security forces have arrested eight people who are directly linked to that cell (Abqaiq)," the interior ministry satement said, but no names of those arrested have been revealed to the press.
The spokesman said that during simultaneous raids across the kingdom, a substantial cache of arms and explosives have been recovered. These included more than 100 grenades and dozens of assault rifles.
According to the statement: "Some of them were related to publishing the terrorists’ ideas on the internet ... others were providing assistance, hideouts and financing the terrorists." AKI states that 19 individuals were arrested for, according to the statement: "adopting the perverted ideology and spreading it through the Internet plus executing criminal acts along with providing financial support for those activities."
Along with the arms and explosives, documents and electronic devices were taken. At al-Abqaiq, 13 suspects were rounded up. In one location here, 99 Russian-made grenades were found, with 22 tear gas grenades, 18 Kalashnikovs, four flares, 131 machine-gun magazines, two hunting rifles and a metal detector.
The revelation came at the same time as news that a planned second attack upon the Abqaiq refinery had been foiled by Saudi security forces.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 31, 2006 2:42 PM
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