No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but ISIS has previously been held responsible for similar attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Advertisement
Members of Saudi Special Forces march during a graduation ceremony in the capital Riyadh, on May 19, 2015.
Four Americans were detained Monday and another five in the following days, the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported Sunday, citing an anonymous source. The US embassy in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is yet to comment on the matter.
The American government has not confirmed any of the information about the arrests, but that US and Saudi officials were working to confirm the citizenship of those detained.
Nine Americans are now imprisoned in Saudi jails, with eight detained in the past three months, according to a website belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.
Of those arrested, nine were from the United States, three from Yemen, two from Syria, as well as an Indonesian, a Filipino, an Emirati, a Kazakhstan nationals, a Palestinian and 14 Saudis, the Saudi Gazette reported.
No further details were given about whether the US citizens in custody are dual Saudi nationals.
On Friday an attack at a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahsa district in Eastern Province killed four people and injured 18, the latest in a string of attacks claimed by militants that have left over 50 dead in the past year. The list of detainees is posted on the Interior Ministry’s Nafethah website, which helps relatives communicate with detainees.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj.
Advertisement
Al-Tuwaijri and another gunman targeted the Imam Reda Mosque in al-Ahsa during Friday prayers. Security wounded a second bomber and arrested him before he could detonate his explosive belt.
