Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it had uncovered an al Qaeda militant group with links to “extremist elements” in Syria and Yemen that had been plotting to assassinate officials and attack government and foreign targets.
The cell comprised 62 members, including 59 Saudi militants, a Yemeni, a Pakistani and a Palestinian, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki said in a televised briefing.
Speaking in a live televised briefing, Turki said the cell had links to the ultra-hardline Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is both a powerful militant force in Syria’s war and an anti-government combatant across the border in turbulent Iraq.
He said some members of the cell were still at large.
“They … started constructing components of the organisation, means of support and planning for terrorist operations targeting government installations, foreign interests and assassinating security personalities,” he said.
The conservative Islamic kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, has grown increasingly concerned about radicalisation this year because the war in Syria has spurred what they see as a surge in online militancy.
Officials are worried about a new al Qaeda armed campaign: Saudi Arabia faced an al Qaeda insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which militants targeted residential compounds for foreigners and Saudi government facilities, killing dozens of people.
The kingdom had responded by arresting thousands of suspected militants and launching a media campaign to discredit their ideology with the backing of influential clerics and tribal leaders. The courts have sentenced thousands of Saudi citizens to prison terms for similar offences over the past decade.
