Growing Tempo Of Saudi Anti-terrorism Arrests Highlight Islamic State Threat

The Saudi government, on July 18, announced the arrest of hundreds of individuals allegedly linked to the Syria and Iraq-based Islamic State militant group. The government's statement, issued by the Ministry of Interior, said that 431 people had been arrested to date (Saudi Press Agency, July 18). It also said that the majority of these individuals were Saudi citizens, although there were also nationals from Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad and elsewhere, with arrests taking place across the country. The announcement, which follows a series of Islamic State-linked attacks in the capital Riyadh and against Shi'a Muslims in the eastern part of the country, underlines the fact that the group poses an increasingly complex security challenge to Saudi Arabia.

The government also revealed a number of thwarted plots, including one to attack a mosque used by special response forces during Friday prayers and another to conduct a series of attacks on consecutive Fridays against (presumably Shi'a) mosques in the country's Eastern Province, where there is a large Shi'a population. Additional plots allegedly thwarted by the authorities included plans to attack an unspecified diplomatic mission in Riyadh and to conduct attacks on security installations in Sharurah, an area of the country's southern Najran Province, close to the Yemen border. This latter plan was allegedly considered to be advanced, with the plotters having established a training camp in the desert nearby in order to undertake "various military exercises there," and to enable "communication and coordination" with "wanted elements in Yemen." The government, however, did not make clear to what extent the arrested individuals were directly linked to the Islamic State, and how far they were merely inspired by it.

The statement is also remarkable for focusing exclusively on the Islamic State rather than on any groups associated with al-Qaeda. While this partly reflects the extent to which the Islamic State has eclipsed al-Qaeda among hardline pro-jihadist audiences in the region, it may also reflect that al-Qaeda's relationship with Saudi Arabia is now complicated. In particular, Saudi Arabia is backing al-Qaeda affiliated forces in Syria via the "Jaysh al-Fateh" Islamist militant umbrella group, and given that its key allies in southern Yemen are also closely connected with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organization's Yemeni branch. Moreover, it is also possible that due to the death of Osama bin Laden, its Saudi founder, al-Qaeda is now less interested in attacking the Kingdom.

In meeting the challenge from the Islamic State, Saudi Arabia is considerably more prepared-militarily, ideologically and psychologically-than it was when domestic jihadism previously peaked in the 1990s or the mid-2000s. However, as the sheer volume of recent arrests, their geographical spread within the country and the wide variety of militant targets-from diplomatic facilities to Shi'a mosques to the security services themselves-shows, the challenges ahead are nonetheless considerable.