Saudi Arabia has arrested 44 suspected militants who were planning attacks, the interior ministry says.

Weapons, ammunition and detonators were also found, in a series of operations over a three-week period.

The militants tried to recruit youths and finance “deviant” activity, the ministry said, quoted by local media.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants launched a violent campaign to destabilise the country in 2003, and the authorities responded with a fierce crackdown.

AFP news agency quoted Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki as saying the recently arrested militants were linked to al-Qaeda.

“These people, I would describe them like a base, they actually work in the area, recruiting young people, giving young people the ideology of al-Qaeda, and financing terrorism in the kingdom,” he said.

All but one of the militants were Saudi nationals, the Saudi Press Agency said, and some had been trained in the use of light and heavy weapons. They were arrested between 10 July and 2 August.

Saudi Arabia has arrested hundreds of suspects over the past year and verdicts were issued in the cases of 330 of them last month.

Source: BBC