124 Held in Saudi Anti-Terror Campaign

Saudi police have arrested 124 people in the kingdom’s recent crackdown on terrorism, and some of the suspects are linked to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, the government said Tuesday.

Saudi authorities launched extensive manhunts after May 12 bombings that killed nearly three dozen people in Riyadh, the capital, and following a June 14 raid on a terrorist cell that was allegedly planning attacks in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

The kingdom’s interior minister, Prince Nayif ibn Abdulaziz, said 124 people have been arrested. The detainees include people linked to Al Qaeda, individuals who have returned from Afghanistan, foreign nationals and at least five women, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as saying.

The minister also said security authorities have confiscated a wide range of weapons, including hundreds of explosive devices and machine guns.

Chief among those arrested is Ali Abdulrahman Said Alfagsy Ghamdi, the suspected mastermind of the Riyadh bombings. The interior minister denied reports that Ghamdi struck a deal with officials to surrender. “The noose was tightening around him. He had no alternative but to turn himself in,” Nayif said.

In Washington, President Bush said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is making strides against Al Qaeda, singling out the recent killing in the kingdom of a “major Al Qaeda operational planner and fund-raiser” known as Swift Sword.

A U.S. intelligence official said Swift Sword is Yousif Salih Fahad Ayeeri, an Al Qaeda financier. The official described him as a senior Al Qaeda figure in the kingdom, a “facilitator, fund-raiser and propagandist. He didn’t conduct attacks but was a promoter of them.”