The seizures by security forces over the past six months included also more than 300 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and launchers and more than 430 hand grenades, some locally made and others produced abroad, said a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Security forces also seized 1,020 weapons such as Kalashnikovs, guns and automatic rifles, more than 352,300 rounds of ammunition and 674 detonators "for use in 350 bombings," it said.

Communications equipment, timers and equipment to set up truck bombs were also seized.

Security forces "were able to thwart many criminal terrorist operations that were in the last phases of planning," the statement said.

Saudi authorities arrested hundreds of suspected Islamist extremists in the wake of three simultaneous attacks on expatriate housing complexes in the Saudi capital on May 12, 2003 that killed 35 people, including eight Americans.

But suicide bombers suspected of links with the Al-Qaeda terror network struck again on November 8, setting off a car bomb in another expatriate housing complex and killing 17 people, mostly Arabs.

The ministry statement also said security forces had detained "a large number" of people used as "terror tools," without giving specific numbers.

WAR.WIRE