Saudi breaks up IS network, arrests 431 members

Saudi authorities announced Saturday that they have broken up an organisation linked to the Islamic State group and have so far arrested 431 of its members, mostly Saudis.

Authorities have "managed over the past few weeks to destroy an organisation made of a cluster of cells, which is linked to the terrorist Daesh organisation," the interior ministry said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The alleged members were engaged in a "plot managed from areas of unrest abroad, with the aim of sowing sectarian sedition and spreading chaos", the ministry said.

The cells were involved in several attacks and plots, including deadly suicide bombings of Shiite mosques in the kingdom's Eastern Province, it said.

The ministry said 37 people were killed during the arrests, including security personnel and civilians, and 120 were wounded. Six "terrorists" were also killed in the operations.
- AFP