Saudi says it thwarted 'imminent' attacks
(Updated at 2000 PST)
RIYADH: Saudi authorities said on Friday they had thwarted terrorist attacks, including one in the capital Riyadh, during a series of coordinated operations against Al-Qaeda suspects last week.
"Security forces managed to... prevent vile attacks that were imminent," when they targeted militant hideouts in Riyadh, the holy city of Medina and the northern town of Arar on August 18, said an interior ministry statement.
A raid on a Riyadh hideout of the "deviant group" -- official terminology for Al-Qaeda -- targeted a group preparing to carry out "an imminent terrorist attack in the city," said the statement read on state television.
One-time local Al-Qaeda chief Saleh al-Ufi was killed during a shootout with security forces in Medina on August 18. Two other militants were also killed in the clashes in Medina and Riyadh, including one figuring on a most-wanted list.
The clashes came days after Western governments warned that fresh terror attacks might be imminent in Saudi Arabia, where suspected Al-Qaeda militants launched a spate of bombings and shootings in May 2003, many targeting Westerners.
The US embassy in Riyadh and its consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran were closed temporarily this month following information about possible militant strikes against American offices and citizens.
Australia, Britain, Canada and Germany also issued alerts about serious threats against their nationals in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi security forces have launched a relentless crackdown on Al-Qaeda suspects since the wave of unrest began more than two years ago.
The violence has left at least 90 civilians, 43 security personnel and 116 militants dead, in addition to hundreds of wounded.
State television Friday aired footage of the clashes and large quantities of weapons seized during last week's operations.
The interior ministry said that during a raid on two residential locations in Arar near the border with Iraq, security forces arrested two members of the same group and seized weapons and "motorcycles used to smuggle individuals out of the country."
The ministry, which had not previously reported the raid in Arar, was apparently referring to the infiltration of Islamist militants to Iraq to join anti-US insurgents. |
