Saudi police uncover IS-linked terrorist network, foil attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Saudi Arabia uncovered an Islamic State network that tried to target military and economic sites in the kingdom, including an oil pipeline, the Interior Ministry said, according to Bloomberg.

Suspects in three cells were detained during security operations over several months this year, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has faced a series of attacks this year by Islamic radicals, including a suicide bomber that killed four security personnel when he targeted the Prophet’s Mosque in the holy Saudi city of Medina in July. The same month militants blew themselves up outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Qatif and near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah.

Islamic State followers have also staged several attacks against Shiite Muslims, security forces and Westerners in Saudi Arabia and other targets in the Gulf over the past two years. In June last year, a Saudi-born man blew himself up in a mosque during weekly Friday prayers in Kuwait, killing more than two dozen worshipers.