Hundreds of suspected IS members arrested

Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) cells, and thwarted suicide attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission, the interior ministry said.

The ministry accused those arrested over “the past few weeks” of conducting several attacks, including an ISIS-claimed suicide bombing in May that killed 21 people. The interior ministry also blamed the suspects for the November shooting and killing of eight worshippers in the eastern Saudi village of al-Ahsa.

In a statement, the ministry said the suspects were also behind another attack in late May, when a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up in the parking lot of a Shia mosque during Friday prayers, killing four people.

The ministry said that in June they thwarted a suicide bomb attack on a large mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia that can hold 3,000 worshippers.

The majority of the suspects were Saudi nationals, but also included other nationals from the Middle East and Africa.

The report said authorities also stopped six successive suicide operations, which targeted mosques in the Eastern province, and timed with assassinations of security men.

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

Senior interior ministry official Bassam Attiyah said the suspects belong to several “cluster cells” who were operating separately from each other.

Saudi Arabia has taken several steps to stop its citizens joining fighters in Syria or Iraq, with the country's highest religious authority condeming the armed group as "apostates" and labelling them the "number one enemy of Islam".

ISIL, which according to reports has recruited thousands of foreign fighters, still controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, where it has been accused of committing mass atrocities against civilians and minority groups.

Saudi nationals have been blamed for several suicide attacks within the country and abroad in recent months.