Saudi arrests 28 Qaeda suspects over attack plot

RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday the arrest of 28 Al-Qaeda linked suspects for planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, following an alleged plot to commit a “terrorist act” during the annual Muslim pilgrimage, or hajj.

“Since December 14, 28 members of the deviant group (the term used by the Saudi authorities for Al-Qaeda) have been arrested, including one foreign resident and the rest Saudi nationals,” an interior ministry official said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.


The statement said the suspects were “linked to elements abroad and were planning criminal acts in the kingdom.”

Saudi authorities, who have been battling a wave of deadly violence waged by Islamist militants since 2003, use the term criminal acts to refer to Al-Qaeda attacks.

AFP