The US embassy in Riyadh has issued a warning to its citizens in the kingdom that it an unidentified terrorist group may be planning to kidnap western nationals in the capital city.
American citizens should “exercise prudence and enhanced security awareness at all times,” the embassy said on Thursday.
“US Embassy in Riyadh advises US citizens in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that we have received information that a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia may be planning to abduct westerners in Riyadh,” the embassy said in a message posted on its website.
The kingdom launched a crackdown on Islamic militants following a wave of attacks in the country between 2003 and 2006. Suicide bombers killed 35 people at a housing compound for westerns in Riyadh in May 2003.
The last reported attack directed at foreign nationals in the kingdom was in 2007, the embassy said in August.
“The fact that the warning came out now just shows that there is still al-Qaeda activity in Saudi Arabia that we haven’t seen in the recent past,” Theodore Karasik, a Middle East security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said.
“It’s been very safe and secure so this development is very interesting and I think it deserves more attention to the why now part than anything else. In Saudi, we haven’t had a kidnapping or a beheading for a very long time.”
The former leader of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency Prince Turki al-Faisal on Monday said the political turmoil across the Middle East had created a fertile ground for terrorist groups in the region but said the kingdom remained “stable and secure.”
Thursday’s warning follows a security update issued to US citizens in August which warned of an “ongoing security threat due to the continued presence of terrorist groups, some affiliated with al-Qaida”.
The issue said the groups may target western interests, housing compounds, hotels, shopping areas, and other facilities where westerners congregate.
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