Saudi Arabia alerts Aramco to possible terrorist attacks

A woman walking through a mall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia beneath an electronic billboard supporting the Saudi-led coalition's military action in Yemen. Saudi Arabia on Monday warned Aramco of possible tShow more

RIYADH // Saudi Arabia is beefing up security around shopping centres and oil facilities after receiving information about possible threats to the sites.

The interior ministry alerted state-owned oil company Aramco and malls in the capital of a possible terrorist attack.

“We have informed security forces to be on alert and to take any necessary security procedures” after gathering information about “a possible terrorist attack attempt”, interior ministry spokesman General Mansour Al Turki said on Monday.

The kingdom is leading a coalition carrying out airstrikes against Iranian-allied rebels in its southern neighbour, Yemen. It is also part of the US-led coalition targeting ISIL militants who have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria. The US embassy last month stopped its consular services in the Saudi capital, Jeddah and Dhahran amid heightened security concerns.

Foreign nationals have been targeted in a series of attacks since the kingdom joined the US-led coalition against ISIL last year.

A US citizen working for an American defence contractor was killed in Riyadh in October and a Danish citizen was shot and injured there the following month.

“Al Qaeda has threatened oil and other economic nodes in Saudi Arabia,” said Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University in Washington. “They would target these sites to disrupt the sense of safety in the kingdom, to try to diminish the credibility of the leadership of Saudi Arabia and to create a new marker for what they will and can do.”

Since Thursday, cars entering the parking lot of the Kingdom Centre commercial and office complex have been searched. Metal detectors were added near all entrances.

Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding and the Four Seasons Hotel are located there.

* Bloomberg, Associated Press