Saudi Arabia said today it had arrested 44 militants who planned to carry out attacks and seized weapons and electronic detonators.
Those held were part of a "deviant group" and included 43 Saudi nationals and an unidentified foreign resident, the Interior Ministry's spokesman said in a statement reported by the state news agency SPA.
Officials usually use "deviant group" to refer to members of radical Islamic groups such as al-Qaeda.
"Some of them underwent training inside the kingdom and abroad on the shooting of light and heavy weaponry and on techniques of preparing explosives as well as forgery of documents," it said.
The arrests, carried out between July 10th and August 2nd, led to the seizure of 17 Kalashnikov rifles, 50 machineguns and 96 remote electronic detonators as well as ammunition in the capital Riyadh and in the northern province of Qassim, it added.
The network was "exploiting charity work to execute criminal plans", the statement added without elaborating.
Saudi Arabia has battled Islamist militants who launched a violent campaign to destabilise the US-allied monarchy in 2003. The violence has subsided since 2006 after nearly 200 people were killed, including foreign residents, members of the security forces and militants.
The Saudi government has arrested hundreds of suspects in the past year on suspicion of trying to revive militant cells and in February issued a list of 85 wanted militants believed to be abroad.
A Saudi court has sentenced one person to death this year in the first publicly reported sentences since al Qaeda-linked militants launched their campaign against the absolute monarchy.
The court gave verdicts against 289 Saudis and 41 foreigners which included jail terms of up to 30 years.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz said in October the kingdom had indicted 991 mainly Saudi suspected al-Qaeda militants for carrying out 30 attacks since 2003.
Militant attacks included suicide bombs at housing compounds in Riyadh in 2003 and an attempt to storm the world's biggest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in 2006, the last militant operation of note.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia has detained thousands of people as part of its anti-terrorism drive without charging them and sometimes even ignoring court rulings ordering their release.
Reuters