Though U.S. authorities have been careful to say there is no evidence of a link to worldwide terrorism, on Saturday a blast in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City injured 29 people, and another unexploded device made out of a pressure cooker was found several blocks away.
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“Months-long efforts culminated in the foiling of a terrorist plot that was to be carried out by a network made up of three cluster cells connected to IS”, the ministry said in a statement to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the killing of two security officers in Dammam’s Al-Khudariya district late Saturday night, security spokesman for the Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday. The network also communicated “with leaders overseas in all their activities”.
In January four police were killed in attacks.
Saudi Arabia has seen a spate of deadly shootings and bombings targeting security forces or the country’s Shia minority over the past year.
Zakharova said the strikes threatened to undermine the ceasefire in Syria brokered by Russian Federation, which has been aiding Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, and the United States, which has backed some rebel groups.
Twenty kilograms, or more than 44 pounds, of explosives were also discovered during the arrests, as well as weapons and ammunition.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with contacts across Syria, cited a military source at Deir al-Zor airport as saying at least 80 Syrian soldiers had been killed. That suspect was allegedly monitoring religious, military and National Guard sites in the area, as well as the Imam Reda mosque that was previously targeted, and had communicated with extremists overseas regarding which site to attack.
