Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Saudi Interior Ministry has revealed that security forces have arrested a number of young men who may have supported terrorism. Despite the arrests, searches will continue to catch those who are featured on Saudi”s most recent list of most wanted terror suspects.

According to security sources, among those arrested were high school students. These young men were mainly assigned to tasks involving technical support for the terrorists. The official spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, Major General Mansour Al-Turki stated that terrorist organizations focus on recruiting young men due to their knowledge of technology. In addition, youngsters do not arouse suspicion from security forces, which in turn facilitates the implementation of terrorist operations.

Al-Turki states that the Saudi suspects detained due to their involvement in terrorist activities range in their level of association. For example, some have no links at all to the terrorist attacks that took place within the kingdom, however, they attempted to enter Iraq or had been extradited by the state security of countries through which they passed on their mission to fight in conflict areas. A number of the detainees, nevertheless, carried out tasks that indirectly participated in acts of terrorism. The ministry”s spokesman reiterated that every detainee”s case was individual and investigation into each case is still underway. He added that the most important task for the security forces was to continue to gain information regarding terrorist activity and to curb any potential operations.

Al-Turki stated, however, that the Ministry of Interior was able to identify all methods used by terrorists in their activities. He affirmed that the recent successes of the security forces was due to information that the security authorities had obtained. He added that the recent crackdown on terrorism, the deaths of its leaders and arrests of members of terror networks have significantly decreased the number of those who collaborate with terrorists. The decrease in particular has reduced the number of those who propagate, and promote the ideology electronically to gain supporters.

Al-Turki commented on the removal of those referred to as the leaders of terrorist organizations in the previous list of 36 most wanted terrorist. He said that the fact that this list no longer features as many leaders as before represents the success of Saudi security forces which were able to expose the structures of these groups, arrest the involved suspects, curtail their attempts and disable potential terrorist activity.