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LONDON/RIYADH, Dec 2: British police arrested 14 people on Tuesday as the United States warned of possible attacks in Saudi Arabia and Kenya, in actions which highlighted a persistent global threat to Western interests.
In Riyadh, the US and British embassies said more attacks may be planned after authorities foiled a massive car bombing one week ago.
US and German authorities also warned their nationals to stay away from the centre of the Kenyan capital Nairobi over the next few days in response to “indications of a terror threat”.
The warnings were made as British police said they had arrested four people in pre-dawn raids in London, six people in the university city of Cambridge and four near the central English city of Birmingham.
Sources said the London arrests were linked to international terrorism.
Police continued to quiz a suspected potential suicide bomber arrested in the southwestern town of Gloucester on Thursday. Explosives were found in the house where he was seized.
Britain has been on its second highest security alert for two weeks after intelligence officials said they had information an attack was being planned, without specifying any target.
RESTRICTIONS: In Riyadh, diplomats said the Seder Village Western compound in the east of the Saudi capital may have been the target of last week’s foiled bomb attack in which security forces said they had seized a car with more than 1.2 tons of explosive.
Western sources said Saudi forces also found a list of five compounds and video footage of Seder Village.
The US embassy said the compound had been under “active surveillance by terrorist elements” and other Western compounds may also be targeted. As a result it was stopping its American staff visiting compounds in Riyadh at night.
Britain’s embassy in Riyadh issued a warning that there was a “continuing high threat of terrorism in Saudi Arabia” and it believed militants planned more bombings. “The threat includes, but is not limited to, residential compounds,” it said.
Saudi Arabia has cracked down on militants since triple suicide bombings in May killed 35 people in Riyadh, including nine Americans. Officials blamed those bombings and last month’s attack on the Al Qaeda network.
In Nairobi, where 214 people were killed in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy, the United States advised its citizens to stay away from the town centre for the next few days in response to an anonymous warning of a terrorist threat. A US statement, which comes ahead of a visit by US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson to Nairobi later this week, said the information had not been corroborated.—Reuters
