Interior Minister Prince Nayef on 22 July said that the 16 Islamist militants whose arrest was announced the previous day had links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network (MEED 21:7:03). 'A terrorist cell of 16 people was uncovered and arrested,' said the interior ministry announcement of the arrests. 'Security forces were able to foil a terrorist plot planned against vital Saudi installations and targets.' Speaking in an interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Prine Nayef gave further details of the suspects' capture and said that they definitely had Al-Qaeda ties. The arrests were made on a farm and at a rest house in Riyadh, and in bases in the central Qassim province and in the east of the kingdom. Seized during the operations were rocket-propelled grenades, explosives, detonators and false passports. 'We have to know how did they reach these persons and how and who helped do this and from where,' said Prince Nayef. The high-profile crackdown on home-grown terrorists, since the 12 May Riyadh suicide bombings and US criticism of the Saudi authorities' security efforts, has yielded more than 100 arrests (MEED 4:7:03). However, the interior minister said that the campaign would continue. 'The time has not yet come to confirm the end of the search for the terrorist cells or disclose all the facts we have.'