Source: AFP
RIYADH - Three Saudi militants have been handed over by Pakistan, the Saudi interior ministry said on Sunday.
The three “were in Pakistan. Further investigation will tell if they were in other areas,” ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP in a reference to Afghanistan.

The interior ministry earlier reported the repatriation of the three in a brief statement without making clear if they had been fighting in Pakistan or joined Islamist militants in Afghanistan.

“Three Saudi citizens who had been in troubled regions in an irregular way have been repatriated with the help of the brothers in Pakistan,” the ministry said.

“They include two who contacted the Saudi embassy to indicate they wanted to return to their country and turn themselves in,” it said, adding that the three would be subjected to “rules in force” in the kingdom.

Their identities were not disclosed.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a US ally in the Gulf region, has been battling suspected Al-Qaeda militants for five years. It has close ties with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the lynchpin in Washington’s “war on terror” against Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan’s Taliban movement.

Saudi nationals are also among foreign fighters battling US-led forces in Iraq.

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Tags: afghanistan, interior ministry, Investigation, Islamist, Militants, Saudi, spokesman