RIYADH, June 24: The Saudi government said on Saturday it had arrested 40 members of the Al Qaeda network in raids across the country.

A statement read out on television said those arrested were ‘members of the deviant group’, an allusion to the Al Qaeda. Thirteen of them were ‘involved in terrorism’, said the statement.

Four of the suspects, including an Iraqi, were arrested in a raid at their hideout in the north-eastern town of Hafr al-Baten. The raid led to the arrest of “nine Saudis involved in terrorism’, the interior ministry statement said.

Another 27 men were arrested in Makkah, the Eastern Province and the northern border region. Among the 27 were two Somalis and an Ethiopian. The rest were Saudis.

The ministry said the 27 men were involved in ‘suspicious activities’ connected to radical groups.

According to sources, the raids were part of a crackdown on ‘terrorists’, citing the killing of six suspects in a shootout on Friday as a major success.