Saudi Arabia has detained 11 Saudis, a Sudanese and an Iraqi linked to al Qaeda who were planning terror attacks in the kingdom.
Among those arrested is a Sudanese man suspected of being an al Qaeda cell leader.
He claims to have fired a surface-to-air missile at a US warplane at a Saudi air base.
It is the first time Saudi Arabia has announced arrests of anyone linked to al Qaeda. The Saudi agency says the alleged plotters were targeting a number of "vital" installations and were planning to use explosives and surface-to-air missiles.
It is not clear exactly when and where the suspects were arrested.
The agency, quoting an unidentified source at the Interior Ministry, says six Saudis and the Sudanese man were arrested several months ago. It says the remaining six people arrested - five Saudis and an Iraqi - smuggled the Sudanese out of the country. It was not clear when those six were arrested.
On Sunday, the Sudanese government announced it had handed over for trial in Saudi Arabia a Sudanese man who had admitted firing a missile at a plane taking off from Prince Sultan Air Base, south of the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Last week, a US official said a Sudanese man suspected of being an al Qaeda cell leader had acknowledged shooting a shoulder-fired SA-7 surface-to-air missile at an American plane taking off from the base.
Fears that a missile had been fired at a US plane in the oil-rich Gulf state surfaced in May after Saudi security guards found a missile launcher tube about two miles from a runway at the desert base. It was unclear when the missile was fired.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry statement said the man had sneaked back into Sudan from Saudi Arabia. The statement did not identify the man or say how or when he returned to Sudan.
PA