DUBAI - Saudi authorities have arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out terrorist attacks during the annual hajj pilgrimage, Al-Arabiya television quoted security officials as saying Friday.
The Saudi sources said the arrests were carried out in several different cities of the kingdom.
"The group aimed to trouble the security of the pilgrimage" which has this week attracted some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from around the world at Islam's holiest sites in western Saudi Arabia, the television report said.
Members of the group, whose number was unknown, were arrested "three days before the start of the hajj season", or at the end of last week, the sources told the Dubai-based Arab satellite station.
The report emerged as the hajj was winding down on Friday, with the pilgrims preparing to fly home.
wak/cyj/hc/al
12/21/2007 19:40 GMT