* 149 suspects arrested, 124 were Saudi citizens
* Saudi says foiled attacks on officials and govt facilities
RIYADH, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia arrested 149 people from 19 cells linked to al Qaeda over the past 8 months and foiled attacks against government and security officials as well as journalists, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
It said in a statement it had confiscated 2.24 million riyals (${esc.dollar}597,237) from al Qaeda when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
"In the past eight months 149 people linked to al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Mansour Turki told journalists at a news conference.
He said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say whether they included oil installations.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in Saudi Arabia by al Qaeda from 2003 to 2006.
The arrests announced on Friday follow one of the largest al Qaeda sweeps in years by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
The March arrests netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen. The militants, who also came from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by the Yemen-based AQAP.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
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