Saudi Arabia executes 37 citizens for 'terrorism' - with one of them CRUCIFIED - after accusing them of trying to 'spread chaos and provoke sectarian strife'

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Saudi Arabia executed 37 of its citizens on Tuesday after they were convicted of 'terrorism' in the kingdom.

The sentences were carried out in Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, central Qassim province and Eastern Province, home to the country's Shiite minority.

Saudi authorities said that one person was crucified after his execution, a punishment reserved for particularly serious crimes. 

The men were executed 'for adopting terrorist and extremist thinking and for forming terrorist cells to corrupt and destabilise security', a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry announced on Tuesday that 37 Saudi nationals had been executed [file photo]

Executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom are usually carried out by beheading. 

It comes just days after security services in Saudi Arabia foiled an ISIS attack on state security unit in Riyadh

Authorities in the country arrested 13 ISIS fighters in connection with the attack on a state security building north of the capital. 

The arrests came after Islamic State claimed responsibility for Sunday's attempted attack on a state security building in Zulfi, a small city about 250 km (155 miles) northwest of the capital.

Security forces have also confirmed that they had killed four alleged Islamic State militants who had planned Sunday's attack, according to state news agency Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

According to reports, the attempted terrorist attack was being planned for the Interior Ministry building in the al-Zulfi suburb in Riyadh.

Following the arrests, the terrorists were identified as Saudi militants who belonged to the terrorist organisation ISIS.

On Sunday, police forces raided a nearby rest-house they said the militants had rented for use as a bomb factory, and seized suicide vests, homemade bombs, Kalashnikov rifles and Islamic State publications. 

Also among the items seized were five explosive belts, organic fertiliser and two laptops.

Th executions were carried out just days after terrorists targeted a building in Riyadh in a foiled plot [file photo]

After crushing an al-Qaeda insurgency over a decade ago, deadly bombings and shootings have been carried out by Islamic State against security forces and minority Shi'ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have for years criticised the leadership of the Western-allied kingdom, accusing it of deviating from their strict interpretation of Islam and advancing the interests of their U.S. enemies.

The arrests comes as the terrorist group begins to lose their last stronghold in Syria after taking it over in 2014.

In March, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced a victory over the ISIS 'caliphate' but claimed the fight had not yet ended. 

At least 100 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to a count based on official data released by SPA.

Last year, the oil-rich Gulf state carried out the death sentences of 149 people, according to Amnesty International, which said only Iran was known to have executed more people.

Rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in Saudi Arabia, governed under a strict form of Islamic law.

People convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face the death penalty, which the government says is a deterrent for further crime.