Arrests reveal an older militant

The average age of 11 suspected militants detained in Saudi Arabia is 36, more than a decade older than typical suspects.

RIYADH // Suggesting that even al Qa'eda is "greying" a bit, authorities have rounded up an 11-member cell of suspected militants whose average age is 36, more than a decade older than the typical rank-and-file member of the terrorist organisation. "It's not the usual young people," said Gen Mansour al Turki, a spokesman for the interior ministry. "The youngest is 27 and the oldest is 46."

The age of the 11 Saudis, who were alleged to have been planning to kill and kidnap security policemen, may be "a good sign because it means that al Qa'eda has lost ground in recruiting young people", Gen al Turki added. The men were detained "one by one" at various times over several weeks in another indication of the security forces' increased vigilance for any sign of militant activity that has kept the kingdom immune from terrorist attacks since a 2006 foiled effort to blow up Abqaiq oil installation.

The recently detained cell was working with al Qa'eda contacts outside the kingdom, and authorities "don't exclude" the possibility that its planned attacks, mostly to occur in the south of the country, were to be "part of a bigger plan" organised by external operatives, Gen al Turki said. One of those arrested had surrendered to the authorities a couple of years ago after his name appeared on a list of alleged extremists wanted by police. He was later released under a royal amnesty.

The group had planned to finance its activities through armed robberies, and had buried machine guns, shotguns, handguns and ammunition "in many different places", the spokesman said. Saudi television broadcast images of policemen dragging buried arms from the hiding places. Members of the group had also stashed food, weapons and video recording equipment in a cave near the remote and mountainous southern Saudi border with Yemen.

Saudi officials are concerned about al Qa'eda activity in Yemen, where a weak central government has only loose control over remote areas, permitting terrorist organisations to operate with impunity. In late January, two Saudis who had previously been detained at Guantanamo showed up in an internet video declaring that they had joined an al Qa'eda affiliate in Yemen and were planning attacks against Saudi Arabia.

One of the two subsequently surrendered to Saudi authorities and is now imprisoned in the kingdom. The Saudi government apparently has been fairly successful in breaking al Qa'eda's organisation in the kingdom, not only by portraying terrorism as a betrayal of one's country, but also through aggressive policing and sometimes pre-emptive detentions when future criminal activity is suspected. In a sign of increased official determination to wipe out the Saudi wing of al Qa'eda, Saudi authorities released a list of 83 most-wanted Saudi extremists based outside the kingdom last February.

So far, three have either surrendered or been captured, Gen al Turki said. [e-mail]