Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat-Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it had broken up a terrorist cell affiliated to the Al Qaeda organization, and whose plans were said to be in the advanced stages.

According to an official statement released by the Interior Ministry yesterday, 11 Saudi citizens were arrested for being members of the cell which is said to have external links.

Sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that among the operations the cell intended to carry out were; assassinations, kidnappings, and armed robbery in order to facilitate elements of the Yemeni Al Qaeda organization’s entry into Saudi Arabia as well as operations within the Kingdom.

Another source informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the terrorist cell had been arrested operating solely within Saudi Arabian territory, and that the names of the 11 members of the terrorist cell were not among the list of 85 wanted terror suspects issued previously by the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The source did not dismiss the possibility that the terrorist cell’s operations were an effort to divert the attention of the security forces from terrorist activities to be carried out by elements outside Saudi Arabia [on Saudi soil].

The Saudi Interior Ministry announced in a statement yesterday that “the security observation of the developments that the region is witnessing and the deviant orientation which target the nation from abroad resulted in the detection of a terrorist cell comprised of 11 Saudi Arabian citizens who have connections with deviant elements abroad, and who had begun to prepare to implement their plans, which included attacks on security personnel, kidnapping and hostage-taking operations, and armed robbery in order to finance their criminal activities. The cell were hiding out in mountain cave near the southern border of Saudi Arabia, where they horded a cache of food supplies, weapons, camera equipment, and other miscellaneous equipment.”

The source informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the cave which the cell were using as a hideout and contained camera equipment, may indicate that it would have been used by the cell as site for holding hostages.