Saudi Arabia arrests 431 on suspicion of IS membership

Saudi Arabia has arrested 431 people suspected of belonging to Islamic State (IS) and foiled attacks in Riyadh and the Eastern Province, where the majority of Saudi Shias dwell.

At least six militants and 37 members of the security forces and civilians have been killed and 120 wounded during the anti-IS offensive beginning in November.

Of the detainees 190 are charged with belonging to a cluster of cells that perpetrated two bombings of Shia mosques in the Eastern Province, killing 25, in May, and shooting eight worshippers in the eastern village of al-Ahsa in November.

The authorities have accused 144 of recruiting new fighters and mounting a propaganda campaign. Arms, explosives and communications equipment have been seized and suicide bombings on a third eastern mosque and a mosque used by security forces in Riyadh have been thwarted.

The ministry of interior accused suspects of planning six attacks over a period of six weeks, targeting Shia mosques on the Friday holiday, the homes of security officers and a foreign diplomatic mission.

Last week a suicide bomber still at large carried out an attack at a checkpoint in the capital, Riyadh, killing himself and wounding two soldiers.

The detainees had, allegedly, established a training camp in the southern desert and kept in contact with IS elements in Yemen, where the group has emerged as a threat in recent months, rivalling the well rooted al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), which has taken control of the coastal city of Mukalla and set free 300 inmates at the local prison, including a number of jihadis.

While the majority of those arrested are Saudis, who form the largest number of IS recruits, citizens from nine other countries are also being held. Between 2003 and 2006 the kingdom’s “terrorism czar,” Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, cracked down on al-Qaeda militants who had conducted a campaign of shootings and bombings against security personnel and foreigners.

However, jihadis have re- emerged since the 2011 Arab Spring that led to the rise of IS, a renegade al-Qaeda offshoot. Now heir apparent and interior minister Prince Mohamed has said terrorist incidents “will not destabilise us”.

Nevertheless, Aqap and IS pose distinct threats to the kingdom. Although it split from al-Qaeda in 2013, IS adheres to its core belief held by founder Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, that the Saudi monarchy must be overthrown and foreigners driven from Muslim lands.

‘Apostates’

Also, the kingdom is threatened with Sunni-Shia conflict because the authorities are unlikely to crush or smother IS or Aqap without tackling the kingdom’s conservative religious establishment, which adheres to the Wahhabi ideology that brands Shias as “apostates” and “heretics” .

This conviction is built into the DNA of the Saudi regime, which took power in Arabia in partnership with tribesmen committed to the aggressive purist Sunni movement founded by Mohamed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century. One of this movement’s first operations outside the Arabian Peninsula was the 1802 attack and sack of the Iraqi Shia holy city of Karbala.

Riyadh is clearly following a contradictory policy toward IS. In February 2014, in a bid to curb the flow of thousands of Saudis to wars in Iraq and Syria, the late King Abdullah decreed 20 years' jail for Saudis joining "terrorist groups" or fighting outside the kingdom. In March, Riyadh formally declared IS and al- Qaeda's Syrian branch Jabhat al-Nusra "terrorist groups".

Nevertheless, the Financial Times reported Arab diplomats as saying the late Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, last summer told US secretary of state John Kerry, "Daesh [IS] is our [Sunni] response to your support for al-Dawa," the pro-Iranian Shia fundamentalist party backed by the US.

Coalition

Despite his reported words, last September Saudi Arabia joined the US-led coalition bombing IS targets in Syria and Iraq. Then in March, Saudi Arabia agreed with

Turkey

to boost aid to insurgents fighting the Syrian government, including northern and southern alliances dominated by Nusra. Since April an influx of fighters, arms, ammunition and anti-tank weapons, some of which went to IS, partially erased military gains on the ground made by the Syrian army, its militia allies, and Lebanon’s

Hizbullah

fighters.