Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has arrested scores of people accused of plotting attacks on oil facilities, in one of the biggest swoops by the kingdom in several years, state media said on Wednesday.

Those arrested included about 50 Saudis and dozens from Yemen, the media said.

The suspects were organised in three cells, two of which were "planning to attack" oil and security facilities in the oil-producing Eastern Province.

"We seized belts of explosives which they were planning to use in suicide attacks," one security official said.

Most of them were arrested in the southern province of Jazan, near the border with Yemen. The dates of the arrests were not disclosed.


Reuters