WASHINGTON: Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation for military affairs, said here on Tuesday that Saudi armed forces had taught the infiltrators a lesson. “They will now think 10 times before trying to make another incursion into the Kingdom’s territory,” the minister said in a speech to students at the office of the Saudi military attache in Washington.

Prince Khaled is in Washington to attend a strategic Saudi-US meeting, the Saudi Press Agency said. Last week he met Saudi armed forces deployed along the Kingdom’s southern border who drove away the infiltrators.

Prince Khaled was scheduled to meet US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington to “discuss a range of bilateral defense and regional security issues,” Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told AFP.

Prince Khaled said Saudi Arabia took strong military action against the intruders on the instruction of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the supreme commander of the Saudi armed forces. “Infiltrators took refuge in schools and other buildings after the Saudi action,” the minister said explaining the Kingdom’s military operation against the intruders.