WASHINGTON, 1 May 2004 — The Kingdom has arrested more than 600 people in counterterrorism operations since May, expanded work with the United States to fight terror financing and issued lists of wanted suspects to publicize its efforts, said a US annual report.
In its annual “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report, the US State Department emphasized Saudi actions to crack down on Al-Qaeda network.
The United States praised the Kingdom for “unprecedented” counterterrorism work spurred by deadly attacks last year in Riyadh.
“The terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia ... galvanized Riyadh into launching a sustained crackdown against Al-Qaeda’s presence in the Kingdom and spurred an unprecedented level of cooperation with the United States,” the report said.
“Riyadh has aggressively attacked Al-Qaeda’s operational and support network in Saudi Arabia and detained or killed ... prominent operatives and financial facilitators,” it added.
“Saudi Arabia has expressed its commitment to undertake internal, political, social and economic reforms aimed at combating the underlying causes of terrorism,” the report added. “Authorities have worked to delegitimize or correct those who would use Islam to justify terrorist acts.”
