JEDDAH, 5 January 2005 — The Kingdom is determined to fight terrorists to the end and will pursue its anti-terrorist policies until the country is free of the menace, Interior Minister Prince Naif said.

He said the Kingdom would seek the cooperation of officials in charge of security in Arab ministries of interior as well as other countries fighting terrorism to achieve this objective.

Speaking in Tunisia where he is attending a conference of Arab interior ministers to discuss terrorism, Prince Naif said the Kingdom is “ready for the confrontation with the deviant group” who aim to undermine the country’s security and destabilize Saudi society. He said more incidents may take place but these would be confronted.

Terrorists struck at the end of the year targeting the Ministry of Interior premises and a Special Forces base in the Saudi capital in two car bomb explosions that only killed the bombers but no security personnel or civilians. Seven terrorists were killed soon after the blasts in a gunbattle with security forces in Riyadh.

The ministry said tons of explosive materials were used in last week’s twin suicide bombings. The vehicle used in the attack near the Interior Ministry building was laden with around 1.5 tons of explosive mixes, including ammonal and other commercial explosives. Another car carrying 1.3 tons of the same explosive mixes detonated 380 meters away from the base of the Special Forces.

Five terrorists who carried out the two attacks were killed. They have all been identified.

“These incidents have been happening from time to time since the middle of 2003. Maybe something would come up, but we are ready to confront it. We have to deal with this menace until it is completely uprooted from the Saudi soil. We will do this with the cooperation of our brothers, the officials in charge of security at Arab ministries of interior as well as other countries fighting terrorism,” Prince Naif was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency as saying.

He said it will take a two-track strategy to rid the country of terrorism; resolute efforts and continuous cooperation to attack terrorism at its roots and dry out its sources and promoting a substitute thought that would clear the minds and souls and silence those whose distorted thought and aberration has only resulted in harming Islam and driven them to commit sins.