Saudi police said today they were hunting for 19 suspected militants, mainly Saudis, believed to be hiding in the capital Riyadh after a shoot-out with security forces last night.
The interior ministry said in a statement read out on Saudi state television that police had also found a huge cache of explosives, hand grenades, ammunition and machineguns after storming what they said was the "terrorists' lair".
It named 17 of the men as Saudi citizens, one Iraqi with Canadian and Kuwaiti passports, and a Yemeni. Many of the Saudis appeared to be from the same family.
Saudi television showed large metal containers of what appeared to be explosive material as well as handbags stuffed with grenades. It also displayed passports and identity cards as well as a bag full of disguises, including colourful wigs.
The statement said the men were linked to a March explosion in the capital in which a Saudi man was killed. Police later said the victim had received explosives training in Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda was based.
The television gave a telephone hotline to report any information that would lead to the men's capture.
Conservative Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 suspected suicide hijackers in the September 11th2001 attacks on the United States were Saudis.
The al-Qaeda leader has many followers and sympathisers in the kingdom, where anti-American sentiment is running high after the US-led war on Iraq and US support for Israel.