RIYADH, Oct 21: Saudi authorities have indicted 991 suspected militants for participating in terrorist attacks carried out over the last five years, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

The legal proceedings mark a significant step in the kingdom’s fight against terror.

Authorities have been reluctant to resort to trials for terrorism charges that could result in death sentences until they had shown the public that every effort had been made to give the men a chance to repent.

“In the past few years, the kingdom has been the target of an organised terrorist campaign linked to networks of strife and sedition overseas,” said Interior Minister Prince Nayef in his statement carried by the Saudi news agency.

“This campaign targeted the way of life, economy and principles of Saudi society and sought to create chaos,” he said.

“It has direct links to a deviant group that adopts the (mindset) of Al Qaida.”

The militants, he said, have been responsible for over 30 attacks in the kingdom since May 2003, killing 164 people, including 74 security officials.

They also have wounded 657 security officials and 439 civilians.

Another 160 attacks were foiled.

The statement did not specify whether all the suspects were in custody or their nationality.

The government fears a public backlash against its crackdown if it takes overly harsh measures against the militants and wants to avoid accusations it is moving against them just to please the United States.

There is a degree of public sympathy for Saudis who leave the country to perform jihad in occupied Muslim countries. Many of those who have returned from imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay or Iraq have been placed in rehabilitation programmes to encourage them to renounce terrorism.

Nayef said the militants’ actions have affected the reputation of Islam and charity work, “attaching the label of terrorism to Islam and Muslims.”

Nayef said that three tons of explosives have been seized from the militants, including RDX, C-4 and TNT varieties as well as over 25 tons of other highly explosive mixtures. Half a ton of explosives alone was used in the November 2003 attack on the Muhayya residential compound in Riyadh that killed 18 people and injured more than 80, he said.

Thousands of missiles, automatic weapons, pistols, rifles, as well as cyanide, have also been seized, he said.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has pursued an aggressive campaign against militants since May 2003, when they first began their strikes in the kingdom.

There have been no major attacks since February 2006, when suicide bombers tried but failed to attack an oil facility at the Abqaiq oil complex, the world’s largest oil processing facility, in eastern Saudi Arabia.—AP