UAE security forces break up terrorist cell

Security forces in the United Arab Emirates have arrested a cell of UAE and Saudi Arabian nationals who were planning militant attacks across their home countries and in surrounding states. Those arrested had acquired materials and equipment for use in what the UAE official state-run news agency WAM identified as “terrorist operations.” The UAE has as yet avoided any attack by insurgency groups. But Dubai, an oil-rich banking center known by many as ‘the Switzerland of the Middle East’ has in recent years become seen as an increasingly attractive target for Islamist militants, according to analysts. "The security authorities in the UAE, in coordination with the related security parties in Saudi Arabia, announced the arrest of an organised cell from the deviant group that was planning to carry out actions against national security of both countries and some brotherly states," WAM said. The term "deviant group" is often used by authorities in Saudi Arabia to describe Al-Qaeda members. In August, Saudi authorities arrested a group of suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants - mostly Yemeni nationals - in Riyadh. The UAE has detained more than 60 Islamists in the locality this year over alleged threats to state security and links to a foreign group.