Saudi Arabia has arrested nearly 100 jihadists, mostly linked to the Islamic State group, and foiled several plots to carry out attacks including on the American embassy, authorities said today.
The arrests have taken place since December and most of those detained were Saudis, the interior ministry said in a statement published by the official news agency SPA.
It said two Syrians and a Saudi who had threatened to launch a suicide car attack against the American embassy in Riyadh last month were among those held.
The statement did not clarify if this group was linked to IS.
US consular services in Saudi Arabia were suspended for a week in March over what was reported at the time as "heightened security concerns".
Saudi security services had proof that led to the "early uncovering of terrorist activities in several parts of the kingdom by members of the deviant group", a term the authorities use to refer to jihadists, the ministry statement said.
The Sunni-dominated kingdom is part of a US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq, where the jihadists have seized swathes of territory.
Among those arrested up to April 18 was a 65-strong IS-linked group plotting to target "residential areas, and operations to incite sectarian sedition" in attacks similar to the killing of seven members of the minority Shiite community in Eastern Province in November, the ministry said.
That group includes a Palestinian, a Syrian and two stateless people, it added.
They are accused of "recruiting young people", "spreading the terrorist ideology" of IS, sheltering wanted individuals, training recruits and "coordinating travel to conflict zones".
It said that cell was led by a bomb-making "specialist" and was testing car bombs, planning to attack security headquarters, soldiers and residential areas.
Nine other Saudis, among them a woman, were arrested for allegedly promoting "terrorist organisations" on social networks and trying to "lure young people" to send them to conflict zones, among other activities.
They had threatened to bomb government headquarters and residential areas, and "used the woman in a failed attempt to lure a military official and assassinate him".
