RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to Daesh (the so-called IS) cells, and thwarted attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
“The number of those arrested to date is 431, most of them citizens, in addition to participants from other nationalities ... six successive suicide operations which targeted mosques in the Eastern Province on every Friday timed with assassinations of security men were thwarted,” a ministry statement carried by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
“Terrorist plots to target a diplomatic mission, security and government facilities in Sharourah province and the assassination of security men were thwarted,” it said.
The ministry said the suspects were carrying out “schemes directed from trouble spots abroad and are aimed at inciting sectarian strife and chaos.”
The ministry described some of the cells and their tasks. One cell, which was made of five members, was tasked with preparing suicide bombers while another five-member cell had the mission to manufacture explosive belts. Of those arrested 190 are suspected to be behind bombings at Al-Qadeeh and Al-Anoud mosques, and formed four cells.
The announcement came after a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint near Riyadh on Thursday, killing the driver and wounding two security officials in an attack claimed by Daesh.
In May, Daesh claimed responsibility for an explosion at a mosque in Al-Qadeeh village in the east of the Kingdom during Friday prayers, which killed 27 people. In late May, Dammam's Al-Anoud mosque was targeted where four people were killed. Also, 97 others suspected to be behind Al-Dalwa incident were arrested.
In late 2014, gunmen killed eight people in the Al-Dalwa village in Ahsa region, at the end of the Shiite holiday of Ashura.
The ministry, meanwhile, said it found an arms workshop at the home of Ali Mohammed Al-Ateeq, one of those arrested. — With input from Agencies
