Saudi fugitives 'are al-Qaeda'

By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst

Bin Laden has sympathisers in his country of origin

The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, has said that 19 Islamic militants being sought by the authorities are suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The group - all but two of them Saudis - had been planning to carry out attacks in the kingdom.

Following a shoot-out with some of the men on Tuesday, the security services found a big arms cache in the house they had been using in the capital, Riyadh.

Prince Nayef said the men - 17 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Yemeni - were known members of an al-Qaeda cell.

Al-Qaeda targeted

He told a Saudi newspaper they were all young men who had received military training in Afghanistan.

The Saudi media have shown pictures of the men and are making much of the huge cache of weapons and explosives found in their hide-out.

In the past, officials referred to such people merely as "misguided youth" - and a spate of attacks on Westerners in the kingdom was officially blamed on expatriates involved in the illegal production of alcohol.

Now there is more openness. The authorities say they have arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects since the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States, and acknowledge that Bin Laden has sympathisers in the country.

Attack warnings

They have not said what targets the 19 men were planning to attack.

But last week, the US State Department said it had intelligence reports warning of attacks against Americans in the Saudi kingdom.

A few days ago an American working for the Saudi navy was injured in an attack.

Even though the US has announced it has begun withdrawing its 5,000 military personnel from the country - ending a controversial presence dating back to the Gulf War of 1991 - anti-American feeling remains high.