Saudi Arabia ‘busts terrorists’ responsible for 2016 Medina, Jeddah bombings

Saudi Arabian authorities say they have arrested members of a terrorist cell responsible for bombing attacks in Medina and Jeddah last year.

The suspects, who included both Saudi and foreign nationals, were detained in the Western port city of Jeddah, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

“Thirty two of those arrested are Saudis, while... 14 others are from Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Jordan,” Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki told reporters in the country’s capital city, Riyadh, on Sunday.

An assailant carried out a bombing attack on the Prophet’s Mosque in the holy city of Medina on July 4, 2016, killing himself and four security officials.

Turki did not specifically link the cell to any known militant organization but said it had also been behind a bombing near the US Consulate in Jeddah that similarly took place in July 4 last year.

Two security guards were injured in that attack.

Worshipers watch smoke billowing from a fire after an explosion near the security headquarters of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

The Saudi Interior Ministry previously identified the Medina assailant as a Saudi national and the one in the Jeddah attack as a Pakistani individual.

Since late 2014, Saudi Arabia has witnessed a series of bombings and shootings mostly targeting the country’s Shia Muslims in the eastern part of the country.

On the same day as the Medina and Jeddah bombings, two bomb blasts occurred near a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia’s eastern city of Qatif.

In his Sunday remarks, Turki provided no updates on the investigations into those attacks.