RIYADH, May 18: Four members of the Al Qaeda organisation have been arrested while five persons have been identified as being the perpetrators of the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said on Sunday.

The four detainees “are members of al-Qaeda. All evidence points to this,” he said while speaking at a news conference.

“They are linked to the operation ... but it has not been proven that they took part in it,” he said of the attacks on the expatriate residential compounds.

“We have identified five of the perpetrators of the bombings,” Nayef said.

He said three of the bombers — out of nine his ministry had said earlier were killed in the attacks — were part of a 19- member al-Qaeda cell, whose discovery was announced on May 7 and their pictures were published in the local newspapers.

“Three (identified bombers) are among those whose pictures were published,” Nayef said, adding that “time was needed to identify all” of the attackers.—AFP