(MENAFN- Arab Times) Saudi police captured two suspected militants, along with several weapons and an explosive vest, in two raids around the capital Riyadh late on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Sunni Muslim militants sympathetic to the Islamic State group have staged a series of attacks in the conservative Islamic kingdom this year, including suicide bombings in mosques used by Shi'ites and security forces, and shootings of police. Police evacuated neighbouring houses and cordoned off a building in Riyadh's al-Mounsiya district before a firefight with suspects Saeed al- Zahrani, 21, and Mohammed al- Zahrani, 19, who were both arrested. They were found with a large amount of money, guns, ammunition and a device for forging identity cards.
The second raid was on a house in al-Dharma, just west of Riyadh, where suspects opened fire on police and tried to flee in a car before it was damaged and they escaped on foot, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on state media.
An explosive vest was discovered inside the car, which had fake Omani licence plates, and a bomb-making factory was found inside the building, the statement said. Saudi Arabia has detained hundreds of people suspected of links to Islamic State over the past year, but officials say the group does not have a complex organisation in the kingdom but relies on isolated cells and individual militants to plan and carry out their own attacks.
A year ago, Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called on supporters inside Saudi Arabia not to travel to Islamic State's territory in Syria and Iraq but to stay at home and carry out attacks there instead. Investigations into a recent crane collapse in Makkah's Grand Mosque that left 107 dead and injured 238 others revealed the "absence of criminal suspicion," Saudi authorities said on Tuesday.
Results of the probes threw part of the responsibility for the accident on the contractor carrying out the expansion of the mosque, Bin Laden Group, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The main reason for the accident was strong winds that blew the crane while it was in a wrong position, in violation of the manufacturer's operating instructions, it said. The contractor did not respond to letters from revelvant authorities demanding review of the position of several cranes at the site, especially the one that caused the tragedy.
The investigation committee recommended that part of the responsibility be laid on the contractor, in addition to reviewing the contract signed with the consultancy firm of the huge project, as well as making sure all safety standards are applied, SPA noted. Reviewing the report, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued directives to refer the results to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution to complete procedures with Bin Laden Group.
The Directives included a travel ban on all members of the Group's Board of Directors of the Group, Eng Bakr bin Mohammed bin Laden, senior executives and others connected with the project "until the completion of investigations and the issuance of judicial decisions in this regard." The Group has also been barred from any future projects until the judicial procedures are completed, and all its projects are now under review. In addition, King Salman ordered SR one million to be paid to the family of each "martyr" in the accident, and an equal sum to each wounded one whose injury caused a permanent disability. Each of the other injured ones will receive SR 500,000.
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