3 held in suicide air attack plot

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi security forces have arrested three Moroccan members of the al-Qaeda network who were planning to carry …

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi security forces have arrested three Moroccan members of the al-Qaeda network who were planning to carry out a suicide attack with a hijacked passenger aircraft, a Saudi security source said yesterday.

"The three men were apprehended late Monday just before boarding a Saudia flight to Khartoum, Sudan, at Jeddah Airport," the source said.

The men had planned to hijack the aircraft and crash it into a building in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second-largest city and economic hub, the source said.

Morocco's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr Abdul Karim al-Sammar, was not able to confirm the arrests.

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"I have received no information about the arrest of any Moroccan in Saudi Arabia," he said.

At least one of the three men arrested was on the most-wanted list of the Saudi security agencies, separate from 19 members of an al-Qaeda cell uncovered in Riyadh on May 6th, according to the security source.

"They are three Moroccans. They are not connected with the cell of 19. The embassy's aware they have been arrested," a US embassy spokesman said.

The arrests followed warnings by senior Saudi officials, London and Washington that a new attack by al-Qaeda was imminent.

Several Western embassies were ordered shut yesterday because of security concerns about fresh attacks.

The US and British embassies said they had received credible information that further terrorist attacks against "unspecified targets" in Saudi Arabia were being planned and could take place imminently.

The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, announced the arrest of four al-Qaeda members in connection with the triple car bombings in Riyadh, but said they were not among the perpetrators.