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Saudi security forces arrested suspected al Qaeda militants planning attacks during the haj pilgrimage, Saudi-owned television said, as Muslim pilgrims performed the last rituals in Mecca.
On the same day as 50 people died in Pakistan in a politically motivated suicide bombing - also thought to be al Qaeda-linked - during prayers, Dubai-based Al Arabiya television quoted a security official as saying the suspects aimed to cause "security confusion" during the annual pilgrimage.
The suspects were arrested in various cities in the kingdom days before the start of the pilgrimage today. A security source told Reuters that attacks had not been planned in the holy city of Mecca or in other haj sites.
One of the world's biggest displays of mass religious devotion, the haj has been marred in previous years by fires, hotel collapses, clashes between police and protesters and deadly stampedes caused by overcrowding.
Since some 362 people were killed in January 2006 in a crush at the Jamarat - the worst haj accident in 16 years - Saudi authorities have completed more than half of a massive infrastructure project which will cost more than US$1 billion.
Pilgrims can now throw stones at walls representing the devils on three levels and a fourth is under construction, alleviating the congestion and facility for disruption during the ritual.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and home to Islam's holiest sites, has been wary of militant actions.
Al Qaeda-linked militants launched a campaign to destabilise the US-allied monarchy in 2003, and Saudi militants opposed to the royal family seized control of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979.
Pilgrims said they were delighted with the Saudi arrangements, and to have completed their religious obligations with relative ease.
"I feel very comforted, like a new person, and I hope that God will accept my pilgrimage," said Mahdy Abdel Halim, an Egyptian-born engineer from Connecticut doing haj with three family members.
This year more than 1.6 million pilgrims came from abroad. Adding pilgrims from inside the country, the total was easily more than 2 million, perhaps 3 million.
- Reuters
