Saudi arrests 18 ISIL suspects

Saudi security forces have arrested 18 suspects with ties to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), the Interior Ministry said Thursday (February 16th).

They were arrested over the past week during raids on "terrorist cluster cells" in the capital Riyadh, the neighbouring Qasim district and the holy western cities of Mecca and Medina, AFP reported.

Fifteen of those arrested were Saudi citizens, while two were Yemenis and one Sudanese, said a ministry spokesman in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The suspects, all men, are also accused of aiding two extremists who detonated explosive belts after clashing with police on January 21st in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, he said.

Security forces seized automatic weapons during the raids, along with knives and more than two million riyals ($533,270), the spokesman said.

Authorities had arrested last month 13 Pakistanis and three Saudis over suspected links to the two extremists in Jeddah.

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Northern Yemen and capital Sana’a are living in darkness, and there is no sufficient drinking water. There is also poverty, hunger and disease. The gunmen of the pro-Iran al-Houthi gangs and the gunmen of the gangs of the ousted old Affash are walking freely day and night in the devastated capital and north.

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