RIYADH, Aug 18: Saudi border patrol in the southern Jizan region have seized large quantities of live ammunition and explosives smuggled from Yemen during the past three days, according to Brigadier-General Murie Aseery, Commander of Operations of the Border Guards.

He said the contraband included 1,200 dynamite sticks, 1,200 booby-trapped wires and 8,864 rounds of live ammunition.

Major-General Mansour Al Turki, spokesman for the interior ministry, said in a recent statement that Saudis who had gone to Afghanistan for ‘jihad’ had a long-term strategy and had been smuggling weapons through the rugged border with Yemen before launching terrorist attacks.

Many political analysts here fear that once the Iraqi war veterans start returning to Saudi Arabia, they could be cause of major concern to the Saudi authorities. During a combing operation carried out by the border guards, they also arrested a person allegedly involved in smuggling children to Saudi Arabia using forged documents.