Saudi government website shows 9 US nationals arrested

The Sunni extremist Islamic State group, which considers Shiites heretics, has claimed responsibility for previous bombings and shootings.

ISIS had claimed the attack in the southern city of Abha.

Members of Saudi Special Forces march during a graduation ceremony in the capital Riyadh, on May 19, 2015.

It shows that five of the Americans were in Saudi Arabia on resident visas, According to the prisons’ website, three others are listed only as US passport holders, suggesting they could be dual-nationals or were visiting the kingdom at the time of their arrest.

The Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper, quoting unnamed security officials, reported on Saturday that the four US citizens were detained on Tuesday, bringing the total number of USA citizens detained in Saudi Arabia since 2007 up to nine. The other detainees include 14 Saudis, three Yemenis, two Syrians, an Indonesian, a Filipino, a Palestinian and one citizen from the UAE and Kazakhstan each. None of the U.S. officials was authorized to speak publicly, and the U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to an influential Iraqi parliamentary leader, the ideology embraced by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group originates in Saudi Arabia. On 29 January, four people were killed and another 18 injured when a suicide bomb blast ripped through a shia mosque in the al-Ahsa district. The list of detainees is posted on the Interior Ministry’s Nafetah website, which helps relatives communicate with detainees. It did not list any more recent detentions.

Al-Tuwaijri died when he detonated his suicide vest at the entrance of the Imam Reda Mosque in al-Ahsa during Friday prayers.