RIYADH, Nov 28: Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had arrested 208 suspected Al Qaeda militants plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility. The suspects formed six cells, one of which plotted to attack a logistical oil facility in the Eastern Province, interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al Turki said.“One of the cells was plotting to attack an auxiliary oil facility in the Eastern Province -- a logistical facility, not an oil refinery,” he said.

Mr Turki did not give details about the installation, but said the suspects had been arrested over the past few months in various parts of the country.

He said another cell was plotting to smuggle rockets into the country, which has been battling suspected Al Qaeda militants since they launched a spate of bombings and shootings in May 2003.

An interior ministry statement carried by official media said security forces thwarted an imminent attack on the auxiliary facility by rounding up the eight members of the cell, which was led by a foreign resident who trained suicide bombers.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer and exporter, announced in February last year that it had foiled an attempt to blow up the world’s largest oil processing plant, in Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

The interior ministry said the suspects were rounded up in a series of pre-emptive operations against members of the “deviant” group -- official terminology for Al Qaeda suspects.

Some of those detained had formed “an assassination squad to target (Islamic) scholars and security men”, it said.

Another cell headed by an “infiltrator” who is an “expert in launching rockets” was plotting to smuggle eight rockets across the border to use them in “terrorist operations” inside the country, the ministry said.

More than half of those arrested -- 112 -- were linked to “external” parties that recruit militants and send them to troubled regions in order to take part in fighting in these countries and then return to “spread sedition and chaos” in Saudi Arabia, the ministry said.

It was apparently referring to Iraq, where Saudis are among militants fighting US-led forces.

Those detained also included “32 Saudis and (foreign) residents active in providing financial aid to adherents of the devious thinking”, the ministry said.

Another 16 rounded up in Madina constituted a “media cell” active in promoting the extremists’ views, inciting “criminal acts” and coordinating the travel of militants to “areas of military conflict”.

The ministry said it had collected information about people related to those cells, and urged them to turn themselves in to security authorities or to the nearest Saudi diplomatic mission if they are abroad. It said their surrender would be “taken into consideration” when their case was handled.

In April, Riyadh reported rounding up 172 suspects, some of whom had plotted airborne suicide attacks on oil facilities and army bases.

A local newspaper reported on Sunday that 1,500 extremists had been released in recent years after a government-appointed “advice committee” persuaded them to mend their ways.—AFP