Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry announced that it had thwarted a car bomb attack against the American embassy in Riyadh, and had arrested 93 people, mostly Saudi nationals, for ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The New York Times reported yesterday.

The ministry said in an statement that the suspects were accused of recruiting and training new members; testing explosives; gathering firearms; and plotting to attack residential areas and security facilities. They were arrested in six groups, it said, adding that most of the suspects had ties to the Islamic State extremist group and nearly all were Saudi citizens. One of the 93 suspects is a woman. …

For their part, the Islamic State’s leaders have called on their supporters to mount attacks inside Saudi Arabia. There have been a series of mainly small-scale attacks in recent months.

Saudi officials said last week that a pair of men accused of killing two policemen had received support from the Islamic State. Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that the second of those suspects had been detained.

Saudi Arabia is among the U.S. coalition partners fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh was closed in the middle of March due to heightened “security concerns.”

[Photo: Saudi-US Trade Group (SUSTG) / YouTube ]