By Mishal Al-Otaibi
Saudi Gazette
RIYADH — The Ministry of Interior on Sunday announced that it has so far arrested 46 members of a terrorist cell responsible for a deadly suicide attack on the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah and some other terrorist acts.
The arrested terrorists include 32 Saudis, and 14 foreigners belonging to Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and Jordan, said Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, security spokesman at the ministry.
In February this year, the ministry announced the busting of two hideouts of a terrorist cell in Jeddah.
In a raid on a residential apartment in Al-Nasim district, Hossam Saleh Al-Johani, a terrorist was arrested.
The second raid was on a rest house in Al-Harazat District on Jan. 21. Two Saudi suicide bombers — Khalid Ghazi Hussain Al-Sarwani and Nadi Marzooq Khalaf Al-Mudhyani Enizi — blew themselves up after security forces laid siege to the rest house where they were staying and planning terror activities.
The spokesman said that the terrorist cell were involved in the attack targeting the Prophet’s Mosque on July 4 last year.
Members of this cell supplied explosive belt used by the suicide bomber Naer Musallem Hammad Al-Nujaidi who blew himself up when he was prevented by security forces from entering the Prophet’s Mosque. Four security men were martyred and five others were injured in the blast in the holy month of Ramadan.
Al-Turki said the cell was also associated with the terror blast at the parking lot of Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah on July 3 last year. Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a Pakistani national, blew himself up as he detonated his suicide vest when security guards approached him.
The cell members in Al-Harazat district were also found to be involved in the killing of one of the terrorists after suspecting that he was going to surrender to the security authorities. The terrorists slaughtered Mutie Salem Al-Saiari, in a barbaric way. Al-Saiari, who was a wanted terrorist, was an expert in making suicide vests.
