Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested 172 Islamic militants belonging to seven terrorist cells and suspected to be linked with Al-Qaeda, some of whom were planning suicide attacks on oil facilities and military bases using aircraft, an official said on Friday.
The suspects, held in a series of raids in different cities, included several Saudi nationals and people of Yemeni and African origin, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted a spokesman for the kingdom's Interior Ministry as saying.
They had been planning terrorist attacks on oil facilities, refineries and military bases using aircraft, the ministry said, adding that several suspects had trained abroad as pilots.
"Some of their most prominent goals were to carry out suicide attacks against public figures; oil installations and refineries and military bases inside and abroad," the ministry said.
"Security forces carried out the following operations: first, through simultaneous pre-emptive operations, dispersed cells were arrested. The number of their members reached 61, mostly Saudis," the report added.
Security forces seized a large cache of weapons, more than Saudi riyal 20 million ($5.3 million), documents, telecommunications devices and computers 'exposing their thought and criminal goals,' the spokesman said.
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