07 June 2016By Dr. Abdul Ruff
Colachal
The world has witnessed yesterday a terrible suicide booming near a Saudi holy
site – exactly what many Muslims globally feared to happen for too long as
Saudi Arabia also joined the USA in attacking Muslims and financing the NATO
terror war essentially on Islam, thereby promoting Islamophobia as well.
The supposed Sunni Muslim jihadist group has called for the overthrow of the
Saudi monarchy and its supporters have previously carried out bombings in the
Gulf state, targeting the Shia minority community and security forces.
ISIS has also claimed, or been blamed for, a series of deadly attacks in the
predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq during the holy
month of Ramadan.
Even as tension building up between super power USA and Arab leader Saudi
Arabia over crucial issues and amid war in Syria and terror attacks in Turkey,
a suicide bomber, according to Saudi internal ministry, has killed four
security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in
the Saudi city of Medina on July 05.
In fact, the
Bombings rocked three cities across Saudi Arabia, including near the Prophet's
Mosque in the holy city of Medina, raising the specter of increasingly
coordinated attacks by 'militants' who were seeking to destabilize the
monarchy serving the cause of USA and anti-Islamism.
A
suicide bomber struck near the United States Consulate in the coastal city of
Jidda in the morning, wounding two security officers. Then, near dusk, when
Muslims were ending their daily Ramadan fasts, other blasts struck near a
Shiite mosque in the country's in the eastern region of Qatif and killed no
one but the bomber, according to witnesses quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Medina, where Millions of pilgrims visit every year, is Islam's second holiest
city, after Mecca and the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad (SAS).
The attacks occurred amid fears that extremists had planned further violence
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and for the holiday that celebrates
its conclusion this week, Eid al-Fitr. No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the Saudi bombings, although Islamic State extremists have
attacked the kingdom repeatedly in recent years, mostly targeting the Shiite
minority and state security personnel.
One of the suspects is a young Kuwaiti man who had pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State and was planning to bomb a mosque during Eid al-Fitr. The man
had studied petroleum engineering in Britain and had moved to Syria to work in
oil production for the Islamic State after his older brother was killed while
fighting for the group in Iraq. The man said after his arrest that he had
received instructions from an Islamic State operative abroad, the agency
reported, to send a young recruit with no security record to obtain explosives
and guns for the attack. Another is a Pakistani origin. An interior ministry
spokesman identified the assailant as a 35-year-old Pakistani expatriate
called Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who it said had worked as a private driver in
Jeddah for 12 years. The second attack took place near dusk outside a Shia
mosque in the mainly Shia eastern city of Qatif.
The Medina attack struck the security office of the mosque where the Mosque of
Prophet Muhammad (SAS), which has been an important stop for millions of
pilgrims who visit the holy cities each year. The blasts in Saudi Arabia
followed a bloody week in which terrorist attacks caused mass casualties in
the largest cities of three predominantly Muslim countries: Turkey, Bangladesh
and Iraq.
The Jidda attack took place when security officers confronted a man acting
suspiciously near the United States Consulate. He detonated his explosives,
killing himself and wounding two guards. The US Embassy in Riyadh, the
capital, said in a statement that none of its consular staff members in Jidda
had been wounded, and it warned American citizens to limit nonessential travel
to the kingdom and to remain cautious inside it. An attack by Al Qaeda on the
consulate in 2004 left five staff members and four gunmen dead.
In Kuwait, officials announced the arrest of four people accused of plotting
two attacks in the country and said they had repatriated a Kuwaiti family who
had joined the Islamic State in Syria. Two Kuwaitis and a man from an
unspecified Asian country were arrested in the second plot and had two assault
rifles, ammunition and the black flag of the Islamic State, the report said.
Kuwait is predominantly Sunni, but Sunnis and Shiites live together with few
sectarian tensions.
An Islamic State suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City killed 27 a
year ago. The bomber was a Saudi citizen. The Islamic State, also known as
ISIS or ISIL, has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
and in Baghdad, and it is suspected of carrying out the one in Istanbul.
Earlier, at least one explosion rocked Qatif, an eastern city which is home to
many minority Shia Muslims. The blast appeared to target a Shia mosque. The
attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.
The explosions come with the holy month of Ramadan drawing to a close and
ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday. A series of deadly attacks worldwide were
either claimed by, or blamed on, IS over the past week: A suicide gun and bomb
attack targeted Istanbul airport on 28 June, killing 45 people. Attackers
struck a cafe in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, last Friday night. Twenty
hostages and two policemen were killed. A massive truck bomb in Iraq's
capital, Baghdad, on Sunday left at least 165 people dead.
Early Monday, the Saudi police became suspicious of a man who appeared to be
roaming around a parking lot of a major hospital, the news agency reported.
When officers approached him, the man detonated what appeared to be an
explosive belt. The explosion happened roughly 33 feet (10 meters) from the
consulate's wall. The blast occurred about 3 a.m. local time. The Saudi news
agency reported that two policemen were slightly injured and that they were
taken to the hospital. The report did not specify how many were hurt. None of
the bystanders in the parking lot were injured in the attack, according to
SPA. Police found three devices inside the bomber's car. A bomb disposal unit
used a robot to detonate them, said a journalist who was on the scene.
A US State Department official told CNN that all chief of mission personnel
were accounted for. The bombing came after a week of attacks in Turkey,
Bangladesh and Iraq, which have left many on edge. In 2004, the US consulate
in Jeddah was attacked by gunmen linked to al Qaeda, who killed five
employees.
Being a close ally of USA and NATO, Saudi Arabia has been the target of
attacks by IS over the past two years. In June, the interior ministry said
there had been 26 ''terror attacks'' in the kingdom in that time.
No-one has yet said they were behind any of the attacks. A
suspected suicide bomber also died after detonating a device near the US
consulate in the city of Jeddah in the early hours of Monday. Two security
officers were slightly injured as they tackled the man, but no-one else was
hurt.
The bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the Prophet's
Mosque. The mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and Medina the
holiest city in Islam after Mecca. The fact that an attack happened in Medina
at such a place is likely to leave Muslims around the world aghast. Four
guards were killed near the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, while only the bombers
died in Jeddah and Qatif. No group has yet said it was behind the attacks, but
suspicion has fallen on so-called Islamic State (IS).
Suspicion is likely to fall on so-called Islamic State (IS). Al-Arabiya gave a
different account of the incident, saying the bomber had targeted the security
officers by pretending he wanted to break his Ramadan fast with them. Qari
Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, who was in the mosque, told the
Associated Press news agency people had at first thought it was the sound of
the cannon fire that marks the breaking of fast. The ground shook, he said,
adding: ''The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building
imploded.''
Ramadan is traditionally viewed as the
most holy and spiritual month in the Islamic calendar, a time of penance and
temperance. Mosques are consequently fuller than usual, typically packed with
worshippers seeking divine mercy and blessings. Juxtaposed alongside that
ascetic puritanism is the view of radicals who regard Ramadan as a month of
conquest and plunder. They may believe it is an opportune moment to double
down on their millenarian war against civilization and therefore launch more
attacks than normal.
The foreign minister of Shia power Iran, Saudi Arabia's main regional rival,
wrote on Twitter: ''There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross.
Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one. The
Afghan Taliban also condemned the attack, saying: ''The Islamic Emirate
(Taliban) – which has been shocked by this gruesome act – condemns this
incident in the strongest of terms and considers it an act of enmity and
hatred towards Islamic rituals.''
Saudi Arabia's
highest religious body has denounced the three suicide attacks in the kingdom
on Monday, including one near Islam's second holiest site. The Senior Council
of Ulema said the bombers had ''violated everything that is sacred''. Saudi
Arabia's Crown Prince and Interior Minister, Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz,
meanwhile sought to reassure his fellow citizens.
One
does not know if ISIS hit the targets in Saudi Arabia on instructions from USA
or on their own. But the USA is very eager to get Saudi Arabia and GCC back on
US board and the explosions in Saudi kingdom may have been inspired by such
hidden agenda.
After all, USA is the surveillance
master who watches and controls world affairs to suit pursuance of its
national requirements.
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EsinIslam.Com
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