Arms haul in desert

The arrests reported were one of the largest swoops announced by Saudi Arabia, which has been battling suspected Al Qaida militants since they launched a wave of shootings and bombings in 2003.

"They had reached an advanced stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks," Al Turki said.

"They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete except for setting the zero hour for the attacks."

Asked about when the arrests took place, Al Turki would only say they occurred "at various and successive times."

An interior ministry statement said various weapons and communications equipment were seized in the swoop, in addition to money totalling more than 20 million riyals (about Dh20 million).

The Saudi channel Al Ekhbariah broadcast footage of a large cache of weapons discovered in the desert. The arms included AK-47 rifles and other rifles, brickettes of plastic explosives, AK-47 magazines, handguns and rifles wrapped in plastic sheeting. The channel also showed investigators digging up plastic sacks.

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