Saudis Say They Broke Up Suicide Plots

In May 2003, suicide bombers from a group calling itself al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia launched coordinated assaults on compounds housing foreign workers in Riyadh, the capital, killing at least 25 people. After that, the network sponsored attacks on other compounds, two oil installations and the Interior Ministry headquarters. Radicals also kidnapped several foreigners and beheaded an American expatriate, Paul M. Johnson Jr., an employee of Lockheed Martin Corp.

The attacks prompted an overhaul of Saudi Arabia's domestic security and intelligence agencies, which received assistance and training from the U.S. government.

Thomas Hegghammer, a Norwegian counterterrorism researcher who has studied al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, said Saudi security forces have gained the upper hand since late 2004. He said they have become much more proficient at monitoring communications and infiltrating cells.

"The reason why things slowed down was not really because the radical circles had completely burned out or because there was no longer a radical network," said Hegghammer, an analyst for the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. "It's because the Saudis have gone from being really bad in counterterrorism domestically to being quite good."

The majority of the men arrested were Saudis, but the suspects included immigrants from Yemen, Nigeria, Mauritania, Syria and other countries, Saudi officials said.

The Interior Ministry said the bulk of the arrests came from two cells with about 60 members each. In both cases, operatives were sent outside the country for training.

"We fear that some trained overseas, including in Iraq. That's where some of [the] training came from. That's why we're concerned about our border" with Iraq, a Saudi official said.

Another cell consisted of nine immigrants who were plotting to storm a Saudi prison and free others who had been rounded up previously, the Interior Ministry reported.

Wright reported from Washington.