JEDDAH — Saudi authorities have dismantled an Al-Qaeda-linked group of 16 people plotting to overthrow the regime, the Saudi-funded Asharq Alawsat daily reported last Wednesday.

The “secret organization” aimed to “gain power with the aid of foreign intelligence services,” Asharq Alawsat quoted a spokesman for the justice ministry as saying, without specifying the country of origin of the intelligence services in question.

According to the spokesman, Abdullah al-Saadan, the group had contacts with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A number of its members were arrested during a February 2007 meeting in the western port city of Jeddah, he said.

The group, which called itself the “project of the generation,” also engaged in collecting funds under the guise of charitable activities, which were in fact destined for “suspicious foreign parties,” Saadan said.

Legal action is being pursued against the group’s members.