• Saudis among 93 suspects held since Dec. • Car blast plot against US Embassy thwarted • Plans to carry out attacks across KSA foiled
Mishal Al-Otaibi Saudi Gazette RIYADH — Saudi authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of a total of 93 people with ties to the Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorist group in recent months, foiling their plans to carry out attacks including a strike on the US Embassy in Riyadh. Addressing a press conference at officers' club of internal security forces here, Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, the security spokesman at the ministry, said the arrested suspects included 88 Saudis and a Syrian, a Yemeni, a Palestinian, and two stateless people. He said the arrests have taken place since December. “Activities are ongoing against the deviant group which seeks to undermine the security of this country ... They are ceaselessly seeking to achieve this through their criminal plans,” he said. Among those held was a Daesh-linked group of 63 Saudis, a Palestinian and a Syrian plotting to target “residential areas, and operations to incite sectarian sedition.” Currencies amounting to a total of SR56,000 and $1,700 were seized from them. It was also discovered that they had close contacts with nine Twitter account holders suspected of terror links. One of the suspects misused his nine-year-old son for a video clip showing how to carry out bloody terror act and posted it on social networking sites. The authorities were able to identify the account holders of these sites and subsequently arrested nine Saudis, including one woman. Al-Turki said the authorities also arrested two Syrians and a Saudi who had threatened to launch a suicide car attack against the US Embassy in Riyadh in mid-March. Another 15 Saudis formed a group calling itself “Jund Bilad Al-Haramain” or Soldiers of the Land of the Two Holy Mosques. The cell was led by a bomb-making specialist and was testing car bombs, planning to attack security headquarters, soldiers and residential areas. It was discovered that the cell members used to gather in desert areas in Al-Qassim region and then they rented a rest house where they conducted training in making explosives, use of arms, shooting, and the like. They used a pit inside the rest house and a car in the desert for trial terror attacks. Their plans included assassination of security officials, attacking installations of security forces and residential compounds. The security authorities seized materials collected for making explosives from their hideouts. Another Saudi terror suspect was arrested on Jan. 31 from Al-Qassim region. It was revealed in interrogation that he was assigned by Daesh to constitute a terror cell after pledging allegiance to Daesh leader. On April 18, the security officials arrested a Saudi suspect from Baha region when he was found in suspicious circumstances while driving a vehicle. The officials found materials for making explosives from his car and later from his residence. The ministry said earlier on Tuesday it had arrested a second suspect in separate shootings in March and April which killed two Saudi policemen on instruction from Daesh, in the first alleged attack by the group inside the Kingdom. Officers detained Nawaf bin Sharif Samir al-Anzi near the capital Riyadh after he opened fire on them, sparking an exchange of shots in which he was wounded, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA.
