Manama: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced five members of a cell affiliated with the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group to death for their role in suicide bomb attacks on three mosques in various parts of the country.
The bomb attacks, which left 22 people dead and injured hundreds, were part of a campaign by IS offshoot that aimed to destabilise the Gulf kingdom. They were also booked for killing a senior cop.
The five men sentenced to death on Thursday have not been named.
The trial of the 45-member cell began after other members were killed in an armed fight with security forces, Arab News reported.
An extensive investigation revealed that the accused were linked to terrorist operations in the Kingdom, including the assassination of Brig. Gen. Kitab Al-Otaibi in April 2016.
The Brig. Gen. Kitab was the then investigations director of the Al-Quwaiiyah governorate, west of Riyadh and was shot dead when he reached Al-Arja police station in Al-Dawadimi province. The IS later claimed responsibility of the attack.
The accused were also involved in the bombing of three mosques in the country. The first bomb attack targeted the Special Emergency Forces mosque in Abha in August 2015 in which 15 people including 11 security forces members and four Bangladeshi workers killed.
The second attack was in Oct. 2015 on Najran’s Al-Mashhad mosque. This is the second-largest mosque for the Ismaili community in the region and the bombing killed two people and injuring 27 others.
The third bomb attack targeted Al-Ridha Mosque in Al-Ahsa in Jan. 2016, for its alleged links to the Shiite community. The attack resulted in the killing of five people and injured 36 others, including three security force members, the report added.
