Saudi Arabia: Al-Qaeda Plot To Overthrow Regime Foiled

Saudi security forces have dismantled an Al-Qaeda-linked cell of 16 people plotting to overthrow the regime, Asharq Alawsat daily reported on Wednesday .

The “secret organization” aimed to “gain power with the aid of foreign intelligence services,” the London-based daily quoted a spokesman for the justice ministry as saying.

According to the spokesman, Abdullah al-Saadan, the group had contacts with Al-Qaeda in Iraq. A number of its members were detained during a February 2007 meeting in the western port city of Jeddah, he said.

The group, which called itself the “project of the generation,” also engaged in collecting funds under the guise of charitable activities, which were in fact destined for “suspicious foreign parties,” Saadan said.