Saudi Arabia stopped a terrorist attack on the United States in 2003 that involved hijacking an airliner and exploding it over a city, a Saudi official told the Al-Watan newspaper according to the Associated Press. The official claimed that 160 terrorist attacks had been stopped by the government of Saudi Arabia.

According to the reported plan, the Saudi terrorists were going to board an aircraft traveling through the U.S. to another destination, so that a U.S. visa would not be needed. The terrorists would then hijack the aircraft, and destroy it using explosives snuck onto the aircraft when it was over a U.S. city.

The plot bears similarities to another failed attack in August 2006, involving the smuggling of liquid explosives onto ten airliners heading to the United States from Great Britain. A previous plot in 1995 called the “Bojinka Plot” also involved the bombing of American airliners in-flight.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of supporting terrorists through promoting extremism abroad and in the country’s religious and education establishments. The Saudi government maintains that it is a partner in the War on Terror, and the U.S. government has praised Saudi efforts to fight Al-Qaeda inside its borders.