“The group’s ability to delude and recruit young members in the Kingdom is diminishing and Al-Qaeda is losing ground,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki.
Al-Turki added that the average age of the terror suspects is 36, which is considerably higher than of those held earlier.
“The youngest member is 27 years of age and the oldest is 46,” Al-Turki said.
The Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday the arrest of the 11 terror suspects, who were plotting attacks in the Kingdom.
The suspects are believed to have ties with Al-Qaeda militants inside Yemen. Other wanted suspects on an Interior Ministry list are believed to be in Yemen. The ministry issued the list of 85 wanted suspects in February.
“We have good reason to believe that the cell is directly linked to Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Yemen,” said a source.
The source also said the suspects might have links to Abdulrahman Al-Aufi, one of the 85 most-wanted terror suspects who turned himself in to Saudi authorities in February and confessed that the group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was setting up its operation headquarters in Yemen.
Al-Aufi added that members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are deployed in Saudi Arabia to identify targets in the Kingdom before returning to Yemen to plan the attacks.
The 11-member terror group had set up its headquarters in a cave on a mountain near the Saudi-Yemen border, according to Al-Turki.
According to reports, the cell’s main objective was to assist militants in Yemen to cross into the Kingdom to carry out terror attacks
