Saudi forces kill two suspected IS members, arrest three

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry on Monday announced that its forces had conducted four raids in the capital Riyadh and the eastern city of Dammam, killing two suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group and arresting three others.

Saudi forces raided an apartment building in Dammam and killed Abdel Aziz bin Zaid al-Wubeiri al-Shamri after an exchange of fire between the man and the officers, the ministry's statement said. Two other suspected IS members were arrested at the scene.

In a seperate raid in Riyadh, Saudi forces killed Aqeel Ameesh al-Mutairy in a gun battle, the ministry said.

In another Riyadh arrest raid, police nabbed a third IS suspect.

Video of parts of the raids were also released by the Interior Ministry, and a report by Saudi television channel 24 was circulating quickly among Arabic social media media users:

The footage shows the three arrested suspects in addition to materials, including weapons, that the ministry said were found at the sites of the raids.

The raids were conducted in connection with a 6 August suicide bombing that killed at least 13 people in city of Abha in the southern Asir province, Saudi-owned pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya reported.

The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack, with an affiliated group calling itself "al-Hijaz Province" tweeting that one of its members had blown himself up at the mosque.

And in May, a seperate suicide bomb attack killed at least 20 at a Shia mosque in the Qatif goverate.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition that is currently bombing IS positions in Iraq and Syria. 

The Gulf monarchy has sometimes been criticised in this role as it is seen as promoting similar religious ideology and systems of punishment to the IS group.

IS has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria amid chaos in the two countries, while other armed hardline groups across the Middle East and North Africa have pledged allegiance to IS.