Suicide bomber kills 13 at mosque in Saudi Arabia
Source: The Guardian
A suicide bomber has killed 13 people and wounded nine at a mosque in Saudi Arabia, the latest in a spate of such attacks in the Gulf kingdom.
The Saudi interior ministry said a bomber wearing suicide vests detonated his explosives during Thursday’s noon prayers at a mosque in the headquarters of the emergency services in Abha, the provincial capital of Asir, near the south-western border with Yemen.
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The attack is the latest in a series of security incidents in the kingdom. Earlier this summer, suicide bombers who pledged allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State (Isis) have bombed Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, killing dozens of worshippers.
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But this latest attack appeared directed at the Saudi authorities, who have arrested dozens of people suspected of belonging to Isis in the country. Saudi Arabia is also part of the American-led coalition against Isis in the region.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/06/suicide-bomber-attacks-mosque-in-saudi-arabia
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bemildred
(90,061 posts)BEIRUT — An apparent suicide bombing at a Saudi mosque near the border with war-battered Yemen left more than a dozen people dead Thursday, officials said, marking the latest blast to hit the kingdom.
There were no immediate assertions of responsibility, but the attack follows a spate of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia claimed by Islamic State militants. It also comes as Saudi Arabia and its allies have escalated its four-month-old war against rebel forces in Yemen.
The official Saudi Press Agency said the blast killed at least 13 people at a mosque in the southern Asir region during prayers by security forces. The report said at least 10 security personnel and three workers were killed.
The Associated Press, citing an Interior Ministry official, placed the death toll at 17.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/deadly-suicide-blast-strikes-saudi-security-forces-at-mosque-near-yemen/2015/08/06/2bb6a042-3c36-11e5-a312-1a6452ac77d2_story.html
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)
The Green Manalishi
(1,054 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)CAIRO - Islamic State on Thursday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in south-western Saudi Arabia, according to a statement circulating on Twitter.
The group said a suicide bomber had infiltrated a "military camp" for the Special Emergency Force in Asir province. It did not specify that the attack was in a mosque.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/ISIS-claims-responsibility-for-Saudi-mosque-suicide-bombing-411388
happyslug
(14,779 posts)I was reading the following Counterpunch article, and something hit me:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/06/the-fake-war-on-isis-us-and-turkey-escalate-in-syria/
What hit me was the split between the Salafists/Wahhabists and the Moslem Brotherhood. Both are radical Islamic groups, but the Salafists are based in Saudi Arabia, while the Moslem Brotherhood is based out of Egypt. The present government of Turkey has been long allied with the Moslem Brotherhood, while the House of Saud supported Salafists supported the overthrow of the Moslem Brotherhood rule in Egypt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement
It is hard to tell the difference between these two, but the Moslem Brotherhood has long adopted the policy of peaceful take over of governments, if possible, Tolerance of Christians and other religions (Tolerance and acceptance but discriminatory), while the Salafists view all such non believers as enemies that must be destroyed. I.e. if you are a non Salafist, you are the enemy of the Salafist. In the Moslem Brotherhood you are potential converts, that can be treated as inferior to true believes, but you still have the right to live and work.
Right now, you are a three way fight going on in the Middle East:
1. You have the Moslem Brotherhood and is allies (The present Turkish Governent, the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria).
2. Iran and its allies, the Shiites in Iraq and the Assad's people in Syria. This includes most of the people on both sides of the Persian Gulf, but not their countries leaders.
3. Saudi Arabia and its Salafist's allies in Pakistan, Egypt and Syria. Israel is tied in with this "alliance" in all but name. The various Arab Persian Gulf State's leadership are in with this alliance, including Kuwait, but NOT Iraq.
The big question marks, are the following:
1. The Turkish Army. The Turkish Army leadership supports a Secular State as opposed to a religious state, thus oppose the Salafists, for that is what they want. On the other hand its enlisted ranks (like the Enlisted Ranks in the Egyptian Army) pulls from those section of the national economy that supports the Moslem Brotherhood. Thus the leadership of the Army may oppose the present government but it can not over throw it. The Turkish Army was allied with Israel till about five years ago, when ships from Turkey were shot at by Israeli gun boats as they try to get food and medical supplies into Gaza by bypassing the Israeli blockade. That turned Turkey against Israel, something that recent treatment of the people of Gaza has NOT reversed. Thus the opposition from the enlisted ranks to anything to do with Israel and Saudi Arabia may be to strong for any Turkish Army coup.
2. The Egyptian Army enlisted personal are also pro Moslem Brotherhood. The Main reason Qaddafi had to go from ruling Libya was if Qaddafi had stayed on, his army could have intervened during the coup against the Moslem Brotherhood (who he has long been allied with). Such an intervention would have lead to a dissolution of the Egyptian Army, as the enlisted rank would have defected to the Libyan forces. The Egytian Army was more then powerful enough to defeat any invading Libyan force, UNLESS that force had massive support of the Egyptian people. The Coup showed how much support the Moslem Brotherhood had for the Army had to use its special forces to do any actual killing, while sending its regular troops all around in APCs as a show of force (and to keep them in line and under their commander's watchful eyes, you saw massive number of APCs concentrated in one location, but no use of them against the protesters AGAINST the Coup. Thus the Egyptian Generals did not trust their troops and to prevent an army from intervening that the enlisted ranks could rally around against their own officers, Qaddafi had to go. Just a comment that Egypt is loyal to Saudi Arabia only via its high command, the people tend to support the Moslem Brotherhood.
3. Right now, the only standing Army in the Middle East I would trust is the Iranian Army. The people of Iran tend to support their government. They may dislike it, but they support it. The troops of the Iranian Army also tend to think like their generals, thus you do not have a split between the officer corp and the enlisted ranks.
4. The Army of Saudi Arabia is split between its Regular Army and its "National Guard", both are commanded by different sons and grandsons of King Saud I, via different wives. Each branch has an officer corp and enlisted ranks that think alike, but it is two different officer corps and two different enlisted ranks. We may actually get to see if the US M1 Tank (used by the Saudi Regular Army) is better then the German Leopard II (used by the Saudi Arabian National Guard). The Saudi Regular Army is tied in with the Salafists big time. Technically so is the National Guard, but its leaders has indicated some support for the Moslem Brotherhood.
5. Gaza is a mess, Gaza is Sunni Moslem but its main support for years was from the Moslem Brotherhood of Egypt AND the Shiites of Iran. Thus those two groups have been working together against the House of Saud for over 30 years. Thus this may NOT be a Shiite vs Sunni dispute, but a Shiite and Sunni of the Moslem Brotherhood vs the Sunni Moslems of Salafists of Saudi Arabia.
Yes, the Middle East is heading for open war, the real issue where will it break out and who will fight as allies against whom?
hollowdweller
(4,229 posts)happyslug
(14,779 posts)I have written in this subject earlier, pointing out that King Saud I, who died in 1952, unified present day Saudi Arabia using both guile and force. Like any first generation Dictator, when he died his Sons took over and ruled his empire collectively. They would pick one of themselves to be the ruler, and replace that person when he no longer had support from within the family (as what happened to the first successor in King Saud in the 1960s) or dead (either by being killed or of old age).
As long as the Second Generation were in charge, the blood letting that is typical of succession fights are absent. The reason is the sons grew up together and learned to worked together under their father and when he died they continued that policy.
In such dictatorship it is when the grandsons (or Third generation) start to take over you start to see infighting. A recent example was the Soviet Union. Stalin also died in 1952, but he was NOT succeeded by his sons, but by those bureaucrats he had promoted during the Purges of the late 1930s, WWII or the post war purges. Thus Stalin was succeeded by this second generation that ruled collectively, like sons in a hereditary monarchy would do. Being bureaucrats not sons, they tend to be 20-30 years older then the Sons of King Saud I, thus the third generation started to gain power in the Soviet Union 20-30 years before the third generation did so in Saudi Arabia.
The affect of this can be seen in the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 1980s. Any variation from official dogma could and was used to destroy upcoming third generation persons in the Soviet Union (you learned to keep your month shut and tote the party's line). Thus you have the intervention in Afghanistan, something Stalin avoided at all costs, as did the Second Generation till the third generation started to move into power in the 1970s. Afghanistan ended up being a debacle and a whole set of bureaucrats lost out on any chance of being the head of the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev took over, he was first third generation ruled of the Soviet Union and that is when the infighting starting big time. Gorbachev was in power by the mid 1980s, but kept running into opposition not only from people who wanted to break up the Soviet Union but people who wanted to save it they think Stalin would have. This lead to Gorbachev slowly giving up the sole power of the Communist Party, permitting non communists (which tended to be ex Communists like Yeltsin). Then the right wing of the Ruling class attempted a coup and failed and the Soviet Union was no more.
Please note, the people of the Soviet Union did not want to kill anyone, they did not want a Civil War, thus the refusal to do any mass killing of protesters. The Coup leaders found out the draftee army that was the Red Army reflected the thinking of the people of the Soviet Union, i.e no use of violence to suppress protesters. Thus you have a relatively non violent overthrow of Gorbachev and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some infighting continued throughout the 1990s as Yeltsin tried to use neo-liberalism economics to convert Russia to a Capitalist country, but as that became more and more clear a disaster he was replaced by Putin, who is a fourth generation leader from Stalin, who then used Keynesian economics to get the Russian Economy going.
Saudi Arabia today is like the Soviet Union in the 1980s. It has NOT yet ditched its last second generation ruler (A son of King Saud I is King of Arabia), but the grandsons (the third generation the Yeltsin-Gorbachev generation equivalent) are moving into position and fighting among themselves. This is complicated by the fact King Saud I and his sons all had multiple wives, AND it is common for Arabs to marry their cousins. i.e. one branch of the family will marry another branch, bring the two branches closer together.
ISIS is supported by some elements of the House of Saud, I suspect other elements oppose ISIS and some support the Moslem Brotherhood. All of the members of the House of Saud should be Salafists and thus support ISIS, but how each branch of the family differ as to when and how much.
This bombing occurred NORTH of Yemen, which itself involved in a Civil War between its rulers and a Shiite branch of Islam. It was aimed at Saudi Special Forces, whose locations are generally kept secret but someone found out about them and went to their mosque to kill them. The bomber may be a Yemani Shiite or someone else who hates the House of Saud. Who leaked the location of these Special Forces personnel? The suicide bomber was probably a Yemani who was recruited because he hates the House of Saud and was told this was the best way to attack the House of Saud. Thus the religion of the Suicide bomber is unimportant, what is important how did he find out the Special Forces were at that mosque at that time? That type of inside information is generally kept secret, but leaked when it is to someone's advantage. Thus the real issue is who leaked the information and why? I suspect it has something to do with the growing infighting among the grandsons of King Saud I, just like Gorbachev had all types of problems when he ruled the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's main enemy was NOT the US or Western Europe, but his fellow third generation leaders who were doing what they could to undermine Gorbachev and improve they own chance of ended up ruling the Soviet Union.
The same with the present King of Saudi Arabia. He is a son of King Saud I, but his Crown Prince is the first third generation person in that position. We will NOT see any overt fighting, but a lot of knives in the back of other members of the House of Saud. Like the Soviet Union 1985-1989 the next five to ten years will be interesting when it comes to Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East.
