Saudis detain 44 terror suspects
Saudi authorities have detained 44 terror suspects linked to last month’s fatal Riyadh bombings and other suspected terrorist cells in the country, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said today.
Prince Nayef told the Saudi daily Okaz that among the 44 were four women arrested on Friday in relation to a terror cell’s alleged plans to launch attacks in the holy city of Mecca.
Police found weapons on the women but their alleged roles in any plots were unclear, he said.
Saudi newspapers reported yesterday that the women were arrested during a raid on a flat leased by one of 12 men arrested over alleged plans to attack sites in Mecca.
Authorities said the plots were foiled in a June 14 raid on a Mecca apartment that killed five terror suspects.
The Saudi government launched a crackdown against militants following the May 12 attacks in Riyadh, that killed 35 people, and the Mecca raid.
Last week in Washington a Saudi official said police had questioned 1,000 people and detained 300 since the Riyadh bombings.
The difference in Nayef’s tally and the official’s could not be immediately explained.
Prince Nayef said the authorities were seeking other suspects, including the man suspected of masterminding the May 12 bombings, Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi and Turki Nasser al-Dandani.
The three simultaneous attacks on Western residential compounds in Riyadh killed 35 people, including nine Americans and nine suicide bombers.
Saudi and US officials said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al Qaida, the terror network led by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden.
Prince Nayef said Saudi Arabia was also closely co-ordinating with Yemen on security issues.
Saudi authorities believe that some of the wanted suspects might have fled into neighbouring Yemen, a hotbed of Islamic militancy and scene of the 2000 USS Cole attack, which killed 17 American sailors and was also blamed on al Qaida.
Saudi authorities have also nearly finished an investigation with eight suspects wanted by Yemen in connection with terrorist plots there.
The eight - believed to be linked to al Qaida – will be handed over to Yemen soon.
On the financing of terrorist groups, Prince Nayef said groups “possibly” raise funds for their activities through charity organisations.
The government is taking steps to establish a new national authority to monitor and control almsgiving to control financing terror through charity organisations, he said.
