Saudi Arabia said on Monday it has rounded up 28 more Al-Qaeda suspects after arresting an equal number in December who plotted "terrorist" attacks and were in contact with the group's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri. This brings to 56 the total number of members of the same group who have been detained and are linked to the Al-Qaeda leadership abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the state SPA news agency.The group had been instructed by the Al-Qaeda leadership to launch a "terrorist campaign" inside the kingdom, it said. Interrogation of the first batch held in December, whose arrest was announced following an alleged plot to carry out a "terrorist" attack during the annual Muslim pilgrimage, showed they "belong to the deviant group (official terminology for Al-Qaeda) and were in contact with leaders of the Al-Qaeda organisation abroad," the ministry said. "They were instructed to rebuild the deviant organisation and launch a terrorist campaign inside Saudi Arabia. Preparations for these criminal plans had reached advanced stages," it said.
Some in the group collected money to finance their activities under the guise of charity, according to the statement. "Security forces arrested one of them who met an individual who came from outside the kingdom to (the Muslim holy city of) Mecca carrying a mobile phone chip containing a message from Ayman al-Zawahiri vouching for the group leader, so that he could collect money under the pretext of helping needy families in Pakistan and Afghanistan," the statement said.
Security forces have now rounded up a total of 56 members of the group who are of "various nationalities," including their leader, the Saudi ministry added, without naming its chief.
Saudi Arabia said in December it had arrested 28 suspects in the provinces of Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and the area around the kingdom's northern borders. The arrests were made public shortly after the interior ministry said that security forces had detained an Al-Qaeda-linked group planning a "terrorist act" during the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca which this year attracted about 2.5 million Muslims from across the globe.
Saudi Arabia has often announced arrests of suspected Islamist militants since launching a relentless crackdown against them nearly five years ago. In November, Riyadh said it had arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility, in one of the biggest swoops in the Gulf kingdom.