The Saudi Ministry of Interior on Monday said that the competent security authorities, and through follow-up of terrorist threats aimed at the security of the Kingdom, have launched a security operation consisting of stages that lasted for several months which led to the thwarting of terrorist operations tasked to a terrorist network consisting of three cluster cells linked to ISIS group targeting citizens, scholars, security men and security, military and economic facilities in different locations, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The cells of this network have been active in the preparation and processing of explosive belts and explosive devices to be used in their criminal operations, providing logistical support such as shelter to wanted people, and providing them with money, weapons and means of transport inside the Kingdom, monitoring the targeted sites, providing electronic and media support for the organization, and communicating with its leaders abroad in all their activities, SPA quoted Major General Mansour Al-Turki (photo), a security spokesman from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior, as saying.

The number of the elements of the network reached 17 people, including a woman, who have been arrested. All of them are Saudi citizens except for 3, one of them a Yemeni national and the other two are Egyptian and Palestinian nationals.

The Saudi authorities have thwarted four terrorist operations, which reached advanced stages of preparation. Preliminary investigations also revealed the involvement of this terrorist network in harboring the perpetrators of the bombing of (Imam Redha mosque) in governorate of Al-Ahsa, blowing up a car belonging to (one personnel of ground forces) in the Aziziyah neighborhood of Riyadh, monitoring a security checkpoint on the road to al-Ha’ir in Riyadh in addition to the Participation in a failed attempt to blow up the oil pipeline north of “Labkhah and Hoitah” in Dawadmi.

The security operation resulted in the seizure of the high explosive devices including sticky bombs, the total weight (19.620) Kilograms, explosive belts ready for detonation weighing (7.520) Kg, metal pipes used as explosive devices, automatic weapons, silencers, and live ammunition and a sum of money exceeds (600,000) Saudi Riyals.