Saudi Arabia foils plot to suicide bomb US embassy in Riyadh

The Kingdom has arrested 93 suspected Isis members in recent months

A former spy for Saddam Hussein is understood to have drawn up the blue print for Isis's invasion of northern Syria (Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia has arrested 93 people it suspects of belonging to an Isis terror cell in recent months and foiled an attack on the US Embassy in the capital of Riyadh, the interior ministry announced on Tuesday.

It said two people had been arrested on suspicion of plotting a suicide car bombing against the embassy in a strongly-worded statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.

Of the 93, at least 77 were Saudi nationals, according to Reuters. A cell involving two Syrians and a Saudi planned the suicide car bombing against the US embassy earlier in the year, but their plot was detected in March.

One of the two Syrian suspects and the Saudi suspect were among the 93 arrested on Tuesday, the ministry said.

The statement added: "Activities are on-going against the deviant group which seeks to undermine the security of this country […] They are ceaselessly seeking to achieve this through their criminal plans.”

Interior ministry spokesman, Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, said 65 of the 93 arrests included a group detained in March for allegedly targeting residential compounds, prisons and security forces, according to the Associated Press.

The US closed its embassy in Riyadh and suspended all consular operations in March amid heightened security concerns.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Riyadh did not immediately comment on the report.