Staff Writer

JEDDAH, 31 August 2003 — Saudi Arabia yesterday denied as “baseless” allegations that militants were infiltrating Iraq across its border to fight US forces.

“These allegations are absolutely baseless and we have no information about any Saudi crossing from our borders into Iraq,” Interior Minister Prince Naif told Al-Hayat daily.

“If any Saudis have indeed entered Iraq, they didn’t do so from the Kingdom’s borders. They might have entered via a third country,” he said.

US military and civilian officials in Iraq have said Saudis are among foreign extremists who have infiltrated Iraq and are involved in the escalating violence in the war-torn country.

US soldiers have faced daily guerrilla ambushes since the end of the war that ousted Saddam Hussein in April.

“We would not tolerate any attempt by a Saudi to interfere in Iraqi affairs,” the interior minister said, adding that any Saudi found to have entered Iraq should be handed over to authorities in Riyadh.

Prince Naif was speaking before the governor of the Iraqi city of Najaf told the AFP news agency that two of four people arrested in connection with a devastating bombing in the Shiite holy city on Friday were Saudis.

Prince Naif also disclosed that Iran had recently handed over a number of Saudi terror suspects to the Kingdom.

He urged Tehran to extradite any Saudi suspect it detains, adding, however, that he had no “precise” information on the identity of Saudis held by the Islamic republic.

The interior minister vowed that Saudi Arabia would continue its crackdown on terror suspects “until this rotten seed is uprooted and security is restored in the country”.

He said more than 150 suspects had been rounded up since the May 12 triple suicide bombings of residential compounds in Riyadh that left 35 people dead, including several bombers.