Saudi Arabia arrests 431 Islamic State suspects

Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to Islamic State cells and thwarted attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission, the kingdom's interior ministry has said.

The announcement came after a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint near the kingdom’s highest security prison on Thursday, killing the driver and wounding two security officials in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

A string of deadly attacks carried out by followers of the ultra-hardline militant group based in Iraq and Syria has fuelled concerns about the growing threat of militancy in the world's top oil exporter.

“The number 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,” the ministry statement said.

“Terrorist plots to target a diplomatic mission, security and government facilities in Sharurah province and the assassination of security men were thwarted,” it said.

Islamic State

Islamic State has called on supporters to carry out attacks in the kingdom.

The group killed 25 people in two suicide bombings at Shia Muslim mosques in the country’s east in May.

A Saudi man, reportedly aided by several other men from the kingdom, blew himself up in a Shia mosque and killed 27 worshippers in June.

The group says its priority target is the Arabian peninsula and in particular Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s holiest places, from where it plans to expel Shia Muslims.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed 120 in Iraq overnight.

The interior ministry said the suspects arrested in the kingdom were carrying out “schemes directed from trouble spots abroad and . . . aimed at inciting sectarian strife and chaos”.

Reuters