Saudi Arabia foils U.S. Embassy attack

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced the arrest of 93 suspects with ties to the Islamic State group who it says were planning multi-pronged attacks on the U.S. Embassy, security forces and residential compounds where foreigners live.

The list of targets recalls a wave of attacks launched by al-Qaida inside the kingdom from 2004 to 2007, which killed dozens of people, including foreigners, and threatened the stability of one of the world’s most important oil-producing nations. Saudi Arabia is also home to Islam’s holiest sites, in Mecca and Medina.

Nigerian army rescues 300 women and girls

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Nigerian troops rescued nearly 300 girls and women during an offensive Tuesday against Boko Haram militants in the northeastern Sambisa Forest, the military said, but they did not include any of the schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok a year ago.

The army announced the rescue on Twitter and said it was screening and interviewing the abducted girls and women.

Troops destroyed and cleared four militant camps and rescued 200 abducted girls and 93 women “but they are not the Chibok girls,” army spokesman Col. Sani Usman told The Associated Press.

Nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in April 2014. The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest. Dozens escaped, but 219 remain missing.

Iran seizes cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iranian forces fired warning shots across the bridge of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel as it was traversing the Strait of Hormuz, boarded the ship and directed it toward the Iranian mainland, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The incident with the MV Maersk Tigris, which prompted the U.S. Navy to dispatch a destroyer and a plane in response, comes at a critical time in Iran’s relations with its neighbors and the United States.

The U.S., other world powers and Iran are trying to hammer out a final deal over Iran’s nuclear program. Last week, the U.S. Navy dispatched an aircraft carrier and guided missile cruiser to the Arabian Sea amid worries that a convoy of Iranian cargo ships was headed to Yemen to deliver arms to the Shiite rebels fighting to take over Yemen.

And U.S. Navy officials said Tuesday that several Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy vessels had surrounded a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, the Maersk Kensington, last Friday as it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

No shots were fired, the Iranian vessels broke off contact and the cargo ship proceeded without further incident.

Associated Press