U.S. ALLOWS RETURN OF STAFFERS TO SAUDI The United States has allowed the return of State Department staffers to Saudi Arabia.

The State Department said non-essential diplomats evacuated from Saudi Arabia in April would be allowed to return. The department cited an improved security situation in the kingdom.

"Our mission in Saudi Arabia has gone off Ordered Departure status and is now an unaccompanied post as a result of continued security concerns," the department said in a new travel warning.

The new travel warning was issued on Aug. 12. Non-essential staffers of the embassy and the families of all diplomats have been out of the country for four months.

The State Department said families of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Riyad and consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran would not be permitted to return to Saudi Arabia. The department said the kingdom was not deemed as sufficiently safe.

"The security situation in Saudi Arabia has improved over the past four months," the department said. "And while the Saudi government has and continues to take important decisive efforts to combat terrorism, Saudi leadership and senior security

officials acknowledge that more time will be needed before the threat is neutralized."

[On Tuesday, Saudi media reported the arrest of a four-man Al Qaida insurgency cell in the cities of Bureida and Mansura in the central part of the kingdom. The cell was said to have been captured on late Monday amid a huge Saudi military search operation for Al Qaida insurgents that included helicopters and other platforms.]

Officials also said U.S. embassy staffers returning to Saudi Arabia would be limited to a one-year term. Until this year, U.S. diplomats served as many as three years in the kingdom.

At the same time, the State Department reaffirmed its appeal to Americans not to travel to Saudi Arabia. The advisory also urged U.S. nationals to leave the kingdom.

Despite heightened Saudi security measures, Al Qaida has continued to attack and kill Western nationals. Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the killing of an Irish national in Riyad on Aug. 3.

"A brigade of the holy warriors in the Arabian peninsula killed the Irish engineer in his Riyad offices," Al Qaida said in its magazine, Voice of the Holy War.