Slain Al-Qaeda militants planned massive attack

Four explosive belts - three of them ready to use - were found in the car used by the militants in Tuesday's shootout. The four belts suggest that at least four people were going to take part in the attack, ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told The Associated Press. He said six Yemenis who were coordinating with the two militants - Youssef Al-Shihri and Raed Al-Harbi - were also arrested.

The three were stopped at a checkpoint in the south of the country, near the border with Yemen. When a female inspector approached the car to check the identities of the "women," the three opened fire. A soldier was also killed in the violence and another was slightly injured. The shootout followed the attempted assassination of Assistant Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Naif by a suicide bomber in Jeddah on Aug. 27.

Like Al-Shihri and Al-Harbi, the attacker, Abdullah Hassan Tali Assiri, was a member of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The three were on the Kingdom's most wanted list released in February. It includes the names of 83 Saudis and two Yemenis living abroad who are suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda.

A profile of Al-Harbi released by the Interior Ministry in February shows that he was 21 and that his last known address was in Yemen. Youssef Al-Shihri was 25 and he took his nephew, 16-year-old Abdul-Ilah Al-Shihri, with him to Yemen, according to the profile, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.