Security forces in Saudi Arabia have arrested 149 people from 19 cells linked to Al Qaeda network in the past eight months and foiled attacks against government and security officials and journalists, the country's interior ministry has said.
Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour ibn Turki told mediapersons in Riyadh on Friday that a total of $597,237 (2.24 million riyals) were seized from suspected Al Qaeda members trying to collect money and spread their ideology during the Haj and Umrah pilgrimages.
"In the past eight months, 149 people linked to Al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Turki said.
He also said the attackers were planning to target government facilities. Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen.
A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in the Kingdom by the terror network from 2003 to 2006, he added. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world’s top oil exporter.