Riyadh, May 15 (DPA) Suspected militants being held in Saudi Arabia on charges of plotting terror attacks have told prosecutors their main aim had been to draw the US into Saudi territory, Saudi media reports said Tuesday.
The suspects, Abdullah al-Muqren, Khaled al-Kurdy, Ahmed al-Muqren and Mohamed al-Zeinwere, were among the 172 suspected militants arrested in late April and reportedly linked to seven terrorist cells, including Al Qaeda.
The reports said they admitted that their plot had been part of a larger terrorist campaign that involved targeting other countries in the Gulf, such as Kuwait and United Arab Emirates.
They also said they had planned to attack Saudi Arabia’s Bqeeq oil field under the instruction of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
They believed that the US would have moved in to protect the oil field if the attack was carried out. If this had happened, according to the militants, the US would have been an easy target for Al Qaeda attacks.
Five of the 172 suspects were reportedly involved in a terrorist attack last year. On Feb 24, 2006, Saudi security forces foiled an attempted suicide attack on an oil processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Several Saudi nationals and people of Yemeni and African origin – mainly Nigerian – were reportedly among the suspects.