Saudi Arabian security forces intercepted a semitrailer carrying a large amount of weapons and explosives on November 27, reports the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat. The security forces killed the driver of the truck and arrested his companion after a gunfight and a road-chase near Jedda.
Saudi Arabia has been conducting a large anti-terror campaign in the past few years, particularly after a series of bombing attacks in Riyadh and other major cities occurred in 2003.
“Searching the driver’s truck, the security forces found a gun, two machine guns with 11 magazines, more than 400 bullets, three hand grenades… in addition to communication devices, various documents, and 9,400 Riyals,” said a source in the Saudi Home Affairs Ministry.
The Saudi government has had a number of anti-terror breakthroughs in the past few weeks. One of its major successes was made public on November 20, when Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister ‘Abdallah Bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz announced: “We arrested a wanted man, who is expected to provide us with a lot of information. This man came to Saudi Arabia to plan terror activities with his colleagues in a neighboring country.”
The deputy prime minister condemned the terrorists, stating that: “Terror attacks [conducted by Muslims] corrupt the image of the Muslim man, who has become in the eyes of other nations a villain… The goal of this strayed faction is harming the kingdom and Islam…”