Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 suspected members of the Islamic State extremist group, state media said.
"The number of arrested to date was 431 (four hundred and on thirty) detainees, most of them citizens, as well as participants holding other nationalities including Yemeni, Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Algerian, Nigerian, Chadian and unidentified others," Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, according to state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The arrested people, who were part of a network of sleeper cells linked to the jihadist group, were accused of planning suicide attacks on mosques and security forces in various parts of the country. The country-wide operations were initiated after a series of Islamic State-inspired attacks against Shiite communities and security forces, according to CNN.
"Horrific terrorist operations were thwarted. They were planned by the deviant organization to occur during the days of the holy month of Ramadan including some on Friday, the ninth of the month of Ramadan, to coincide with the terrorist operations of the organisation that were carried out in other countries," the statement said, according to SPA.
"The thwarted operations include a suicide attack using explosive belts targeting the mosque of the special emergency forces in Riyadh, which accommodates 3000 people on Friday," the ministry said.
The ministry added that six suicide attacks were foiled by security forces in the past few days. "The Saudi security forces foiled terrorist plans to target a diplomatic mission and governmental facilities in Sharourah province," the statement said, according to ARA News.
The detainees were responsible for suicide attack on a mosque in Qudayh, which killed 21 people, and a similar attack on a mosque in Damman, which killed three people, in May, CNN reported. Six terrorists were killed in the countrywide crackdown, along with 37 security forces and civilians.
The Saudi government placed the Islamic State group in its terror organization list last year and has joined the U.S.-led coalition targeting it in Syria and Iraq, according to Fox News.
People have taken to Twitter to share their reactions to the Saudi crackdown.
Saudi chickens come home to roost. Govt says it has arrested 100s of suspected members of #ISIS, but it could be BS. https://t.co/0jqk9ePI7Q
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) July 18, 2015
Saudi Arabia arrests over 400 suspected ISIS members. Very welcome news. Did it take an Iran deal to make the Kingdom serious? — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 18, 2015
