According to a statement issued by the Saudi Ministry of Interior on Friday, Saudi security forces broke up more than seven jihadist cells that had been engaged in an array of activities against the authorities. The statement did not identify al-Qaeda by name, but described the suspects in typical official codewords for the organization, such as "deviant group" and those who had "adopted the takfiri thought [judging Muslims as infidels] toward Arab and Islamic peoples, governments and leaders."

Mansour al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the group of 172 Islamic extremists "are carriers of al-Qaida ideology, working on achieving al-Qaida goals, which is to take over the society."

The key objectives of these cells, it said, were suicide attacks against Saudi oil installations, public figures and military bases inside and outside the countries. The ministry said that one of the cells had sent recruits to an unspecified foreign country to receive aviation training for use in suicide attacks, copying the operational method of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

Al-Turki told The AP that the militants planned to use the planes "like car bombs ... to use the aircraft as a tool to carry out suicide operations." He said the targets also included Saudi military bases, which he said the militants had no other way of reaching but "through these means" of blowing up an aircraft.

Information released by the Interior Ministry revealed that three of the cells involved had been using Iraq as a theater of terror operations as well as a training and staging area for attacks against Saudi Arabia. That may be a case of history repeating itself — Saudi native Osama bin Laden and other Arabs who had participated in the Afghanistan jihad of the '80s later returned to their home countries to fight the authorities during the '90s. One cell of 59 Saudis and non-Saudis sent members to "external training camps" to "participate in regional conflicts" — a reference to Iraq, according to Saudi sources — with the aim of facilitating "their return to the Kingdom to carry out their criminal plans." Another cell was actually formed abroad with the aim of launching attacks in Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Meanwhile, three of the cells were targeting Saudi Arabia's oil installations, apparently with the aim of crippling Saudi oil revenues and causing massive oil price rises to disrupt to global economy.

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One of the cells even planned to overthrow Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saudi and replace him with an al-Qaeda leader.

The Interior Ministry said that a collection of cells consisting of 61 members had duped a large number of people out of "huge amounts of money" in raising funds for its operations, including the training of suicide pilots outside the country. The ministry said that the leader of the group, who was not identified, received baya, or allegiance as an Islamic authority, from its members in a secret ceremony at the Kaaba in Mecca, Islam's holiest site.

The last time that happened was in 1979, when as many as 1,500 Muslim militants led by Juhayman al-Otaibi seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca in a bid to overthrow the Saudi monarchy. Security forces crushed Juhayman's revolt. Nearly three decades later, however, the fire Juhayman started has not yet been extinguished.