Saudi Arabia Arrests 46 Individuals Linked to Last Summer's Attack in Medina

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that it has arrested 46 members of a militant cell responsible for the suicide bombing last summer near the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. According to a Reuters report citing the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the suspects, which include Saudi citizens and foreign nationals, were arrested in Jeddah. In the suicide attack that occurred in mid-July 2016 in the parking lot adjacent to the Prophet's Mosque, two Saudi police officers were killed, and the report indicates that three suicide bombers also lost their lives in the attack. Earlier, on July 18, 2016, just four days after the incident, Saudi officials announced that they had arrested 12 Pakistani nationals and seven Saudi nationals in connection with the attack. However, it remains unclear what other nationalities are included among those recently arrested in Jeddah. No group has claimed responsibility for this suicide attack so far, and while the Saudi Ministry of Interior has referred to the detainees as members of a militant cell, it has not specifically named any group. Meanwhile, the Islamic State group, or ISIS, has claimed responsibility for several bombings in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014, generally targeting the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia or the country's security and police forces. Last year, the Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia, as a U.S. ally in the international coalition against ISIS, has become one of the targets of the group's attacks, witnessing 26 terrorist attacks between 2014 and 2016. Last July, simultaneous with the suicide bombing near the Prophet's Mosque, several other suicide attacks occurred near a Shia mosque in Qatif, which did not result in any casualties. At that time, the attackers in the Qatif incidents were identified as three young men around 20 years old, all of whom were activists opposed to the Saudi government. Iran condemned the suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, which shook the cities of Qatif and Medina.