FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2007
0:31 MECCA TIME, 21:31 GMT
Saudis 'foil hajj attack plot'
Nearly three million people travelled to Saudi Arabia
for the annual hajj season [AFP]
Saudi Arabia has arrested a group of men said to have
been planning a "terrorist act" during the annual
Muslim pilgrimage, according to the Interior ministry.
The ministry said on Friday that security forces had
foiled a plot to carry out an attack on security
forces during the hajj (pilgrimage).
Mansour al-Turki, an interior ministry spokesman, told
The Associated Press: "The group was arrested three
days before the hajj season."
Al-Turki gave no further details on the identity of
those arrested, but the Saudi-owned Arabiya satellite
news station described them as Saudis.
"The group aimed to trouble the security of the
pilgrimage," the television report said, but quoted
Saudi sources as saying the attack did not target
Islam's holiest sites in Mecca or the pilgrims.
Security threat
They said the arrests were made in several different
cities of the oil-rich kingdom.
Sami Zeidan, reporting for Al Jazeera from Mecca, said
Saudi authorities had affirmed the group was "not only
linked to al-Qaeda but also intended to disrupt the
hajj".
"We've heard of arrests before in Mecca," he said,
"But the talk of al-Qaeda targeting hajj is a new
element."
He added: "It's difficult to see what al-Qaeda would
gain from an attack that would disrupt the Muslim
pilgrimage ... It leaves a lot of question marks."
Pilgrimage
Nearly three million pilgrims travelled to Saudi
Arabia for the annual hajj season, which ended on
Friday with a final visit to Mecca after days rituals
in the surrounding hills.
The authorities were on high alert this year because
of the participation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first
president from Iran to take part in the pilgrimage.
Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia's interior
minister, said in early December that his forces had
foiled "more than 180 terrorist operations" since a
wave of bombings and shootings by the Saudi branch of
al-Qaeda broke out four years ago.
The Muslim kingdom also said it arrested 208 suspected
al-Qaeda fighters over the past few months.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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