Members of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have confessed to having direct links with Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi channel Afaq TV on Friday aired confessions of a number of the ISIL militants admitting to having relations with and taking orders from Riyadh.

In the broadcast, the members of the militant group also confessed to Saudi Arabia’s role in terrorist attacks in a number of Iraqi provinces, along with transporting weapons and booby-trapped cars into Iraqi cities.

One of the captured ISIL leaders said a Saudi military official ordered him to carry out several attacks.

Iraqi Federal Intelligence and Investigations Directorate in Karbala has arrested a large number of terrorists in several operations it has carried out recently.

The revelation comes as the Iraqi army and Sunni tribesmen continue their battle to drive out ISIL militants in the western province of Anbar.

Iraq is experiencing its worst cycle of violence since 2008, with al-Qaeda-linked militants flexing their muscles on Baghdad’s doorstep.

Earlier in January, Iraqi security officials said a senior ISIL commander, identified as Shaker Vahib al-Fahdavi, had met with a top Saudi intelligence official in Anbar, just weeks before he was killed by Iraqi forces.

An unnamed al-Qaeda commander recently arrested by Iraqi forces also said that the ISIL has received USD 150 million and 60 vehicles in aid from Saudi Arabia one day before an anti-government camp was dismantled by Iraqi forces in Ramadi last month.

The removal of the camp, which Baghdad says was being used by terrorists operating in the country, sparked protests from Sunni lawmakers. But the army’s withdrawal from the city paved the way for ISIL militants to overrun the provincial capital and the neighboring city of Fallujah.

MRS/NN/AS