Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it has arrested three suspected Al Qaida militants involved in spreading the group's ideology through the Internet.
The Interior Ministry identified two of them in a statement by their aliases Abu Osaid Al Falluji and Abu Abdullah Al Najdi and said the arrests were part of a crackdown on terrorism and "misleading media that seeks to spread their deviant ideology".
"They have targeted the youth of the nation with their deceptive calls in the hope of recruiting some of them to achieve their aims and carry out hateful strategies that target the homeland and the citizens, security and resources," it said.
It said Falluji, a Saudi, was involved in "preparing terrorist operations and encouraging people to take part in them and contacting several entities directly to seek funding and help in carrying out (operations) in the homeland".
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said earlier the three were members of Al Qaida and that one of them was involved in plans to hit the kingdom's oil industry.
The ministry said Najdi, also a Saudi, re-published an Internet magazine that was started by Al Qaida, Sawt al-Jihad, calling for attacks on the kingdom's oil industry.
The third suspect was a foreign resident suspected of preparing to publish a magazine for Al Qaida, which Saudi Arabia calls a "deviant group".
Islamic militants swearing allegiance to Al Qaida launched a violent campaign to topple the Saudi monarchy in 2003, carrying out suicide bomb attacks on foreign nationals and government installations, including the oil industry.
