ISIS claims responsibility for failed attack on Saudi security base

Four armed men were killed as they tried to storm Al Zulfi centre of intelligence

Members of Saudi security forces, pictured during a military parade, are reported to have foiled an attempted terror attack on Sunday. Reuters

ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attempted attack on a Saudi state security office northwest of Riyadh.

The Amaq news agency, a media arm of the terror group, said that four men had pledged allegiance to ISIS before launching the attack. It gave no further details.

Saudi security forces said on Sunday that they had foiled an attempted terror attack that targeted a domestic intelligence centre in the town of Al Zulfi, a small city about 250 kilometres north of Riyadh.

Security troops had killed four armed men as they tried to storm the centre. They were armed with assault rifles, explosives and Molotov cocktails, Saudi state media reported.

Three security officials were wounded in the attack.

Videos on social media appeared to show the attack. They showed a car at a checkpoint with its doors open and two bodies lying on the ground near it.

Gunshots are heard.

Saudi officials have not officially named the assailants or released any further details of the attack.

Also on Monday, the kingdom announced the arrest of 13 men said to be planning attacks against the country's security services, Saudi state news agency reported.

The kingdom has suffered many attacks in recent years by extremists, including Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Two weeks ago, Saudi security forces killed two men and arrested two others as they tried to flee the country and threw explosives at a police checkpoint.

Three of the four men were wanted by authorities. Two officers were wounded in the attack in eastern Saudi’s Abu Hadariya province.

Last year, a member of the security forces and a Bangladeshi resident were killed in an assault on a security checkpoint in nearby Buraidah, and a policeman was killed in a separate attack in the western city of Taif.

The highest profile attack in Saudi Arabia was the 1979 storming of the Grand Mosque in Makkah by religious extremists.

For two weeks, Saudi security forces battled the militants with the help of Pakistani and French special forces.

At least 127 soldiers were killed and 450 injured but the final death toll also included worshippers who were taken hostage and many of the gunmen.