Wall Street Journal or WSJ said the Saudi Arabian royals who accompanied King Salman, currently on the second leg of his Asian tour in Indonesia, was narrowly missed in a planned attack in Malaysia.
Malaysian police told WSJ the terrorists were arrested seven men thought to be linked to the terrorist group, the so-called Islamic State, between Feb 21 and Feb 26.
The terror suspects organised themselves in separate teams, but were caught “in the nick of time”, said Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.
The attacks were planned for Feb 26, as the terror suspects received directions from Mohamad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi to conduct a bomb attack using a “large-scale vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” in Malaysia before leaving to join IS in Syria.
The police gave little details on the nature of the plots but said that one group consisted of four Yemenis and another of an Indonesian and a Malaysian.
The Saudi king has been leading an entourage of some 1,500 people on a monthlong tour of Asia, seeking to strengthen ties with a region the kingdom sees as an increasingly valuable economic partner and a hedge against an unpredictable U.S. government, said WSJ.