Saudi Arabia says it thwarted planned terrorist attacks

By Ahmed al-Masri

RIYADH

The Saudi authorities have thwarted a plan by the Daesh terrorist group to carry out attacks in different parts of the country, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced Monday.

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted Ministry Spokesman Mansour al-Turki as saying that authorities had arrested members of 17-man Daesh cell comprised of 14 Saudi nationals, an Egyptian, a Yemeni and a Palestinian.

"With this operation, our forces have foiled four terrorist attacks," al-Turki declared.

"Our forces seized several improvised explosive devices, including high-explosive ‘sticky bombs’ weighing a total of 19 kilograms," he asserted.

"We also found explosive belts ready for use weighing a total of seven kilograms, along with automatic weapons, silencers and ammunition," the spokesman said.

The announcement comes two days after two Saudi policemen were killed by unidentified gunmen in Dammam, regional capital of the kingdom’s majority-Shia Eastern Province.

The incident in Dammam was the first militant attack in Saudi Arabia since the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage ended last week.

Last month, Saudi authorities announced they had foiled two separate terrorist attacks in Eastern Province’s Qatif region.