Swiss arrests over Saudi attacks

The attacks have been linked to the al-Qaeda network

Eight foreigners have been arrested in Switzerland in connection with suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia.

The detained are being held on suspicion "of providing logistical support to a criminal organisation," federal police said in a statement.

"The police action was in the context of terrorism investigations," the statement added.

Twenty-six people - including one Swiss citizen - and nine attackers were killed in the Riyadh bombings last May.

Nationwide operation

"In the course of our inquiries related to terrorism - and in particular the attacks in Riyadh - an operation by the federal police took place simultaneously on Thursday in five cantons [regions]," Switzerland's public prosecutor said.

The authorities say the are "at the beginning of the investigation"

Over 100 police officers took part in what is being described as Switzerland's biggest-ever nationwide operation against alleged terror suspects, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Bern says.

But because of the continuing investigation, the police is declining to provide any further details.

"We are at the beginning of the investigation," Andrea Sadecky, a spokeswoman from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office, said.

And "it would not be right to say all of these people had the same religious or ethnic background," she said.

These arrests mark a significant development in the investigations but it will be some time before more is known about the eight suspects, our correspondent says.

She says the Swiss legal system is complex and often slow, and the authorities say it may be months before official charges are brought.

Tackling 'terror finances'

The Swiss authorities have been very keen to work with the United States since the 11 September 2001 attacks.

One key area of investigation has been into whether Switzerland's banking systems could have been used in the funding of terror groups, our correspondent says.

Eighty-two Swiss bank accounts containing $28 million have been frozen, she adds.

But there has been no suggestion that the latest arrests are related to finance.

Hundreds of Islamic militants have been rounded up in Saudi Arabia since the attacks on expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh in May 2003.

The attacks have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Another 17 people, most of them Arab expatriates, were killed in the bombing of another Riyadh housing complex on 8 November.