By Andrew Hammond
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has detained 520 suspectedal Qaeda-linked militants since January, accusing some of themof planning car bomb attacks against an oil installation in thekingdom, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement read out on Saudi television said thedetainees were part of a wider plot managed from abroad andinvolving militant groups seized last year.
Among the detainees were some Asian and African nationals.
Some planned to use car bombs to attack an oil installationand a security target in coordination with al Qaedasecond-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, who had planned to sendfighters from Iraq, Afghanistan and North Africa to help them,the ministry statement said.
"Security forces managed to arrest one cell in the EasternProvince led by African residents ... their concern was to getclose to people working in the oil sector in order to find workin oil installations," it said.
There were 40 Mauritanians among those held in theprovince, as well as Afghans, Iraqis and Yemenis, a securitysource said.
The kingdom, which has faced a campaign of violence by alQaeda-linked militants since 2003, arrested hundreds ofsuspects in 2007 but because of a tough security crackdown hasnot been hit by any major attacks for over two years.
The ministry said a total of 701 people were arrested inrecent months but 181 were released for lack of evidence.
The last major attack by militants was a failed attempt tostorm the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in theEastern Province in February 2006.
Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey saidthe arrests were "another indication that al Qaida and theterrorist groups out there remain, and remain a challenge, notonly for the United States and for Saudi Arabia but for thebroader region and, really, for the world".
SECURITY POLICY
Dubai-based Saudi analyst Fares bin Houzam said the arrestsshowed that Saudi security policy was failing to challenge alQaeda's appeal.
The group, led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, accuses theroyal family of being corrupt, un-Islamic tyrants allied to theUnited States. The government condemns the group as "deviants"abusing religion to justify a campaign of violence that haskilled civilians and destroyed property.
"The government is operating only on the security level.The efforts at the level of ideology have come to nothing,"said bin Houzam, a former militant sympathiser. "I don't seeany efforts on the ground, it's all just in the media."
Liberal and Islamist government critics say the countryneeds political reform to temper the autocratic rule of the AlSaud dynasty, and allow ordinary people a say in government.
King Abdullah has led efforts to end religious extremism inthe education system and open up dialogue between differentgroups in society, but opposition figures say it is not enough.Some opposition critics have been arrested over the past year.
"For 25 years Saudis were told by their teachers, religiousscholars and media that they should help Muslims in conflictabroad," said Thomas Hegghammer, a research associate atPrinceton University. "It will take a very long time to changethat perception."
The ministry statement said the Eastern Province cellleader was found with a taped message from Zawahri.
State television showed a cache of ammunition which it saidthe suspects had tried to hide in the desert.
The detainees included another cell that was collectingfunds in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, the scene of an attackon foreigners working in the energy sector in 2004.
"They were acquiring money by any means including theft andfraud in order to fund terrorist activities inside and outsidethe country," the statement said. "They tried to exploitreligious sentiment in the country through Internetpropaganda."
(Reporting by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Diana Abdallah)
