DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to Islamic State cells, and thwarted attacks on mosques, security forces and a diplomatic mission, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

"The number arrested to date is 431, most of them citizens, in addition to participants from other nationalities ... six successive suicide operations which targeted mosques in the Eastern province on every Friday timed with assassinations of security men were thwarted," the statement posted on the official news agency SPA said.

"Terrorist plots to target a diplomatic mission, security and government facilities in Sharurah province and the assassination of security men were thwarted," it said.