Saudi Arabia says detains 11 suspected militants

RIYADH, June 7 (Reuters) Saudi Arabia has detained 11 suspected Islamist militants over the past 48 hours including one involved in an attack on a major Saudi oil installation, the state news agency said today.

SPA quoted an interior ministry official as saying that all 11 detainees were Saudi nationals who spread and financed Islamist militancy and that one was involved in an attack on the Abqaiq facility in February 2006.

The suspects' assets had been confiscated, it added, giving no more details.

''The Interior Ministry announces this to affirm its determination to confront those that belong to the deviant group,'' it said.

In April, Saudi authorities arrested five people suspected of involvement the Abqaiq attack.

Militants swearing allegiance to al Qaeda launched a violent campaign to topple the Saudi monarchy in 2003, carrying out suicide bomb attacks on foreigners and government installations including the oil industry in the world's biggest oil exporter.

Tough security measures and a powerful publicity campaign has helped crush the violence but analysts and diplomats have said the underlying currents of radical Islamist ideology and anger at Western policy in the region remain strong.

Officials say about 144 foreigners and Saudis including security forces, and 120 militants have died in attacks and clashes with police since May 2003, when al Qaeda suicide bombers hit three Western housing compounds in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia said in April it foiled an al Qaeda-linked plot to attack oil facilities and military bases, arresting more than 170 suspects, including some trainee pilots preparing for suicide operations.

Most of the 19 al Qaeda militants who hijacked planes in the Sept. 11 attack on the United States were Saudis and Osama bin Laden is Saudi born.

REUTERS GL ND1740