RIYADH, Aug 30: The Saudi authorities have announced that about 280,000 intruders and smugglers were arrested over the past six months by the Saudi border forces, thanks in part to the use of hi-tech cameras placed along the border. Huge quantities of weapons, ammunition and drugs, including 11 bombs, 13,800 dynamite sticks and 76 kilogrammes of explosives, have been seized.

In another development, the security forces have arrested four armed men in the industrial city of Jubail.

An interior ministry spokesman said four Iraqi car thieves had been arrested after a firefight.

“The Iraqis slipped into the country to try to steal cars and smuggle them out. Police officers arrested them after an exchange of gunfire,” the spokesman said, adding that one of the Iraqis was injured and taken to a hospital.

The spokesman said an investigation would attempt to determine if the clash was connected to a wave of Al Qaeda violence.

Earlier in August, a police chief in the Jazan region was quoted by the Al Watan newspaper as saying that in just three days, 1,200 dynamite sticks, bullets, explosive powder, 2,745kg of drugs and 300 banned videos were seized along the border with Yemen. Brig-Gen Marih Assiri said smugglers had been using children and teenagers in their operations.