By Mohammed Al-Kinani
JEDDAH – The Interior ministry said Tuesday Saudi security forces have smashed an 11-member terrorist cell planning attacks, hostage-taking and armed robberies.
“This was quite clear from the hoarded food supplies, guns, cameras and miscellaneous equipment which were found in their hide-out,” Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen.Mansour Al-Turki told Saudi Gazette.
The men had hidden themselves in a cave in a mountainous area near the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The gang, all Saudis, was planning to attack security men, stage kidnappings, hold “some figures hostage”, and undertake robberies to finance their operations, the ministry statement said.
Al-Turki said the 11 cell members had not been captured as a group.
“After precise security work for long days and nights, our security men were able to hit this cell before it could harm the country,” Al-Turki said.
“They were not arrested at once, but taken one by one, until we were certain we had all of them.”
The group had buried weapons and ammunition in different places and investigations are continuing, the ministry statement said.
None of the 11 is in the list of the Kingdom’s 85 most wanted militants living abroad, Al-Turki said. However, they have contacts with deviant elements outside the Kingdom, he added.
In February the ministry released a list of 83 Saudis and two Yemenis wanted for ties to Al-Qaeda or other militant groups. Three people on the list, which was handed over to Interpol, have since been captured.
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