JEDDAH: The Interior Ministry announced Monday that its officers had killed two men and arrested three others who had been planning attacks in the Kingdom.

The men were all Saudi nationals and members of Daesh, the terrorist group, said Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the ministry. The raids were preemptive strikes on three locations in Riyadh, and one in Dammam, he said.

These men were linked to the cells busted on Sept. 15 in Riyadh. One was in Monasiyah district which saw the arrest of Ahmed Said Jabir Al-Zahrani and Mohamed Said Jabir Al-Zahrani, and one in Darma Province, about 60 km west of the capital, that saw two suspects, who had been building bombs, escape.

The cell had been at an advanced stage in their planning to attack various targets in the Kingdom, but the security forces had thwarted their operations based on intelligence gathered in the field, said Al-Turki.

The raid on a residential apartment in Badr District in Dammam, Eastern Province, resulted in the killing of one wanted suspect, Abdulaziz bin Zaid Al-Wibairi Al-Shummari, during a shootout with the security team. The officers arrested two Saudi nationals, Muhannad bin Mohammed Hamoud Al-Otaibi and Fahad bin Falah Sulaiman Al-Harbi, said Al-Turki.

Al-Turki said that Al-Harbi was the man who rented the house in Monasiyah district, and had been on the run since the Sept. 15 operations, which saw guns, ammunition and explosives seized.

In the raid on the second location, a residential apartment in Falah District, Riyadh, a Saudi national, Oqail bin Amish Oqail Al-Oqaili Al-Mutairi, was killed. He had been one of the men extradited from Iraq and subsequently imprisoned in the Kingdom for three years.

During the third operation at a residential villa in Andalus District in Riyadh, a Saudi national wanted by the government, Faisal bin Hamid Ahmed Al-Hamid Al-Ghamdi, surrendered to the security team.

In the raid on the fourth location, a residential extension in Sulay District, Riyadh, it was discovered that the place was being used as a meeting point for members of the terror cell.

Al-Turki said that operations were continuing across the country to identify and arrest those who supported the members of the terror cell. The ministry was determined to track down those planning to disrupt the country’s safety and security with their deviant ideology and criminal acts, he said.

Daesh, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, reportedly carried out an attack in August on a mosque in Abha killing 15 people. In May, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a mosque in Qatif, killing 21.