(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Saudi Arabia has put security forces on alert for a possible militant attack on a shopping mall or energy installation, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Turki said yesterday.
"There was information about a possible act targeting a mall or Aramco installations. We passed this information to the security forces to be on alert," he said.
This month Saudi police announced they had detained a Saudi citizen suspected of shooting dead two police officers and injuring two others in two separate attacks in Riyadh.
"Saudi Arabia is targeted by terrorism. Usually in such situations (conflicts), there are attempts by terrorist groups to take advantage and carry out attacks," said Turki.
On Saturday, guards at the gates of a central Riyadh shopping mall stopped single men from entering and searched the bags of female shoppers, Reuters reporters said. Turki said he had no further information about the threat. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and key strategic ally of the United States, has been a target of jihadist militant groups for years, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Riyadh has been carrying out air strikes against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen since March 26 in a conflict in which nine members of its security forces have been killed by cross-border fire. An air strike on a Scud missile base in Sana'a yesterday triggered a big explosion that killed 25 people and wounded almost 400, state news agency Saba said. The blast hit the base on Faj Attan mountain beside the Hadda district, home to the presidential palace and many embassies, blowing out the windows of homes for kilometres around and sending a tall mushroom cloud into the air.
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