Mansour Al-Shihri
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
RIYADH — Some 532 Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorist suspects accused of planning a number of terrorist operations in the Kingdom are under investigation prior to their trial at Criminal Court in Riyadh.
The terrorist suspects were arrested in pre-emptive raids in various parts of the Kingdom. They are from six cells which included two women, one from Saudi Arabia and the other from the Philippines.
The majority of the arrested terrorist suspects are Saudis but they also include Egyptians, Yemenis, Jordanians, Algerians, Chadians, Nigerians and other persons belong to unidentified nationalities. They include four experts in manufacturing explosives and preparing booby-trapped cars.
The Interior Ministry announced in April 2015 that it had arrested 93 suspects, including a woman, belonging to Daesh.
The ministry said 15 of them had established a terror cell under the name Jund Al-Haramain Al-Sharifain (soldiers of the land of the Two Holy Mosques). They had reached an advanced level of planning before being arrested.
Security sources said the suspects were ready to carry out criminal operations against security headquarters and residential complexes as well as killing security men from various military sectors.
The suspects were accused of planning a suicide operation against the US Embassy in Riyadh using a truck loaded with explosives. They were also accused of plotting to attack the intelligence prisons where terror suspects are held, recruiting young men and women, spreading Daesh thought through social media and establishing safe havens for wanted criminals.
Last August the ministry announced that it had arrested 421 suspects who were members of four terror cells. The suspects were behind five terrorist operations in Riyadh and the Eastern Province including blasts at mosques which killed a number of innocent worshipers.
The ministry said that 10 terror plots were foiled with the arrest of these suspected terrorists.
