Saudi authorities broke up an alleged Islamic State cell, killed two suspected militants and arrested three others in operations in the capital, Riyadh and in the eastern city of Damman, the state SPA news agency said on Monday.
The alleged IS cell was planning to carry out "an imminent terrorist act" and one of the sites raided by the authorities was a bomb-making factory, SPA reported, citing a Saudi interior ministry statement.
One of the alleged militants killed in heavy clashes with police during Monday's operation in Riyadh, Aqeel Ameesh al-Mutairy, was one of the most 85 wanted by the Saudi authorities.
The cell was linked to a suicide bombing against a mosque in Abha in the south of the country that killed 15 people, according to the statement.
Over the last few months, IS has carried out several attacks on mosques in the Kingdom which killed dozens of people, according to police. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours last year joined a US-led military coalition bombing IS in neighbouring Iraq and Syria, where it controls swathes of terrority.
