Suspected Saudi and UAE terrorist cell arrested
Militants from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are arrested in a joint Saudi-UAE operation, the official WAM news agency reports. The cell were reportedly planning attacks in the Arab Gulf.
The cell had acquired “materials and equipments with the aim of executing terrorist operations,” the official UAE news agency WAM reported.
WAM news agency referred to the cell as “the deviant group” which is often used by authorities in Saudi Arabia to describe al Qaeda members, Reuters reported citing WAM.
“The security authorities in the UAE, in coordination with the related security parties in Saudi Arabia, announced the arrest of an organised cell,” WAM and Reuters said.
The group reportedly planned to carry out actions against “national security of both countries and some sisterly states.”
The UAE is made up of seven states which include Dubai (photo, above) and oil-rich Abu Dhabi. The UAE is located in the Arab Gulf next to neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The emirates are also a US ally and has detained more than 60 local Islamists this year, Reuters said.
Gulf media reported in September that the detainees, who belong to an Islamist group called al-Islah, confessed to setting up a secret organisation with an armed force whose aim was to take power and establish an Islamic state.
According to al Arabiya, those detainees have confessed to setting up a secret organisation with an armed force whose aim was to take power and establish an Islamic state, local media reported in September.