With Syria (and its Al Qaeda-funded "rebels") having taken a back seat in geopolitical developments, some wondered what are all those heavily armed mercenaries doing. The answer emerged moments ago when Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday it had thwarted a major plot by a militant group with links to extremist elements in Syria and Yemen, arresting 62 suspected members.
From Al Arabiya [5]:
According to a ministry statement, the majority of those arrested were Saudis. A Palestinian, a Yemeni and a Pakistani were also apprehended.
Authorities are also pursuing a further 44 alleged members, the statement said.
The group had been targeting “government and foreign interests” and had planned “wide -scale assassinations.”
How ironic: first, the government that was explicitly destabilizing the Syrian regime, first lost its "intelligence chief" Prince Bandar, who was fired three weeks ago [6] for failing to get the US involved in a Syrian ground war fighting on Saudi's behalf, and now its one time allies, feeling left alone and isolated (since the US never lived up to its part of the bargain), are turning on one of the many hands that fed them. Hmmm, where have we seen this exact plot line before...
Unfortunately for Saudi Arabia, the "Mujahid" jihad is only just starting:
[7]
Who could have possibly foreseen this? Well, anyone who watched the following clip released several weeks ago in which the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, aka ISIL, aka al Qaeda, declared their intent to bring jihad to Saudi Arabia.
And just like that the middle east is interesting once again.