Saudi Arabia says it busted terrorist cell trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Saudi Arabia took down a terrorist cell this month that had received training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, arresting 10 people and seizing weapons and explosives, the spokesperson for the presidency of state security said on Monday.

In a statement carried by Saudi state media, the spokesperson said three of those arrested had been trained in Iran while the rest were “linked to the cell in various roles”. The weapons and explosives were confiscated at a house and a farm, he added.

Cell members “received military and field training, including on how to make explosives, inside Revolutionary Guards sites in Iran” for several weeks in late 2017, he said.

The statement said weapons and explosives were confiscated at two locations, a house and a farm, in the Gulf Arab state, the world’s largest oil exporter and a key US ally.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in several proxy wars in the region, including in Yemen. Riyadh has blamed Iran for an unprecedented missile and drone attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities last year, a charge Tehran denies.