Saudi Arabia says it dismantles Islamic State cell in Riyadh

 Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it had dismantled an Islamic State cell in the capital Riyadh, in connection with a plot to launch a suicide attack on the defense ministry.

Two militants were killed and five others arrested in raids on three locations on Wednesday, an official source in the newly-created Presidency of State Security said in a statement on state-run television.

Islamic State has for years criticized the leadership of the Western-allied kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, accusing it of deviating from their strict interpretation of Islam and advancing the interests of their U.S. enemies.

Thursday’s statement said a suicide bomber in the eastern Riyadh district of al-Rimal detonated his vest after security forces surrounded a house used to manufacture suicide vests and explosives.

Another militant was killed by security forces after he holed up with firearms in an apartment in the western district of al-Namar, it said.

The third raid was at a horse stable in the southern Riyadh suburb of al-Ghanamia which the statement said had been used as a headquarters.

Security forces seized firearms and bomb-making materials, shown on state television along with a burned out car and a damaged building where the first militant had blown himself up. The suspects were not identified.

Security forces closed off several areas in Riyadh on Wednesday, and videos shared online showed a plume of smoke rising at one location.

The plot to attack the defense ministry, uncovered last month, allegedly involved two Yemeni nationals and two Saudi citizens.

A Saudi security source said at the time that one of the detainees was a member of the armed Houthi movement, which is locked in a 2-1/2-year-old war with a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.