A high-level team of Saudi security experts arrived in Khartoum to aid in the investigation of 19 people, including 17 Saudis, recently arrested on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist network. The 19, who also included a Palestinian and a Sudanese, were captured as they were engaged in military training at a camp near Laqawa town in West Kordofan State, according to the London-based Al-Hayat daily.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi also said yesterday that the suspected Al-Qaeda members in custody were arrested in Iran before the May 12 suicide attacks and could therefore not have been involved in the planning of the blasts, as suggested by US investigators. However, Kharrazi is still not saying which suspected members of Al-Qaeda were currently being held there, explaining that the detainees were still in the process of being identified.

Following the Riyadh blasts, in which seven US nationals died, fingers were pointed at Egyptian-born Saif Al-Adel, thought to have taken over as Al-Qaeda No. 3 from military operations chief Mohammad Atef, who was believed killed during the US attack on Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities are meanwhile searching for two United Arab Emirates nationals suspected of involvement in the Riyadh bombings. The suspects were identified as Suleman Sayed and Khaled Rasheed, both in their 30s, who are believed to have flown to the southern Pakistani city of Karachi after the bombings.

A Pakistani official told The Associated Press his department had received a request by the UAE to find and extradite the men.