Saudi Security authorities have clearly scored a substantial victory against terrorism. Their swoop that rolled up four terror cells and a large support network sends a clear message to Daesh. The terror group has made the mistake of taking on a determined and implacable enemy.
Terrorists generally hold the initiative when they begin their campaigns of murder. Thus last November the shooting dead of eight worshippers in the village of Al-Ahsa was Daesh’s calling card. It served to announce the opening of its vile campaign.
Then this May, 29 people died in the attacks, a week apart, on the Al-Qadeeh mosque in Qatif and the Anoud mosque in Damman. It was clear that the security services were expecting a terrorist outrage. The challenge was that they were not sure where it would happen. Two months on and it is clear that they have made a significant intelligence breakthrough.
In a major dragnet, 431 terror suspects have been apprehended. The hunt is still on for others. It seems that the security services know who they are looking for.
Among those held are people suspected of being involved in the attacks on the mosques in Eastern Province. Also detained are individuals thought to have been responsible for recent assaults on police patrols in Riyadh.
The most outstanding coup was however the actual prevention of terror attacks apparently being planned by these men. An unnamed diplomatic mission had been reconnoitered. There were also planned assaults on security and government premises in Sharourah.
In an attempt to strike at the heart of the country’s security, it is also known that the terrorists were trying to pinpoint the homes of members of the police and security services. It is clear that a campaign of assassinations was being planned.
The level of organization unmasked in this week’s raids is chilling. Terror cells, each of five people, had separate tasks. One for instance had the job of persuading fools to be suicide bombers. Another had the job of actually putting together the explosive belts. Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Mansour Al-Turki made clear that there was no direct contact between each terror cell. This classic terrorist tactic is designed to protect the individual cells when one of them is penetrated or broken up.
Fortunately for the Kingdom, Daesh's carefully laid scheme did not work. Somehow, and the guess has to be largely thanks to sophisticated signals interception, Saudi intelligence was able to intercept the orders coming presumably from the center of the terror network in the Syrian town of Raqqa.
The secret cells and their support groups contained a mix of nationalities including Saudis. Imprisoned and currently being investigated are individuals from Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen. These people had been welcomed as guests in the Kingdom. They repaid their hospitality with treachery and murder.
The crushing of the Daesh terror network will not however be the end of the matter. Saudi Arabia has won an important battle. But the war against Daesh is very far from over. It has suffered a humiliating defeat. It will want to strike back. Undoubtedly, the security forces are already prepared for this. Their vigilance must be supported by all who live in the Kingdom. One day, it may emerge that this week’s operation was helped by information from an observant member of the public.
Meanwhile there has been another victory to celebrate this week. On Tuesday, two aid vessels tied up in Aden port. One of them, from the UN, had been standing offshore for some time. It was too dangerous to risk entering the harbor. But now Aden is liberated. Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudi-led air campaign have driven Houthi rebels out of the port city. It is safe for both aid ships to dock and discharge their urgently needed cargo.
Once more, a famous victory has been won. But the war is far from over. Until the Houtis come to understand how they have been misled by their Iranian sponsors, the violence will continue. More lives will be lost. More people will suffer from hunger and wounds. More homes will be destroyed.
But there is a lesson to be learned here. This lesson needs to be learned in Raqqa and in Tehran. The Kingdom has a reputation for quiet diplomacy. It sees it as always preferable to talk softly. Nevertheless, those who mistook this thoughtful approach for weakness have been proven utterly wrong. If there is no alternative, the gloves come off. And the fist with which the Kingdom strikes is made of iron.
Kingdom’s victory on two fronts
Kingdom’s victory on two fronts
Editorial: Iran must not go unpunished
- Arab News argues that while war is always a last resort, an international response is a must to curb Iranian meddling
- US strikes worked well when Assad used chemical weapons against his people
The attacks on Tuesday by armed drones on Saudi oil-pumping stations, and two days beforehand on oil tankers off the coast of Fujairah in the UAE, represent a serious escalation on the part of Iran and its proxies, should the initial conclusions of an international investigation prove to be accurate.
Riyadh has constantly warned world leaders of the dangers that Iran poses, not only to Saudi Arabia and the region, but also to the entire world. This is something former President Obama did not realize until the Iran-backed Houthis attacked the US Navy three times in late 2016. The recent attacks on oil tankers and oil pipelines were aimed at subverting the world economy by hitting directly at the lifeline of today’s world of commerce. Tehran should not get away with any more intimidation, or be allowed to threaten global stability.
It was in 2008 that the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz called upon the US to “cut off the head of the snake,” in reference to the malign activities of Iran. Nearly a decade later, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman referred to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the “new Hitler of the Middle East.” We are in 2019 and Iran continues to wreak havoc in the region, both directly and through its well armed proxies. Crown Prince Mohammed was therefore clearly correct when he argued that appeasement does not work with the Iranian regime, just as it did not work with Hitler. The next logical step — in this newspaper’s view — should be surgical strikes. The US has set a precedent, and it had a telling effect: The Trump strikes on Syria when the Assad regime used Sarin gas against its people.
We argue this because it is clear that sanctions are not sending the right message. If the Iranian regime were not too used to getting away with their crimes, they would have taken up the offer from President Trump to get on the phone and call him in order to reach a deal that would be in the best interests of the Iranian people themselves. As the two recent attacks indicate, the Iranians insist on disrupting the flow of energy around the world, putting the lives of babies in incubators at risk, threatening hospitals and airports, attacking civilian ships and putting innocent lives in danger. As the case always is with the Iranian leadership, they bury their heads in the sand and pretend that they have done nothing. Nevertheless, investigations indicate that they were behind the attack on our brothers in the UAE while their Houthi militias targeted the Saudi pipelines.
Our point of view is that they must be hit hard. They need to be shown that the circumstances are now different. We call for a decisive, punitive reaction to what happened so that Iran knows that every single move they make will have consequences. The time has come for Iran not only to curb its nuclear weapon ambitions — again in the world’s interest — but also for the world to ensure that they do not have the means to support their terror networks across the region.
We respect the wise and calm approach of politicians and diplomats calling for investigations to be completed and all other options to be exhausted before heading to war. In the considered view of this newspaper, there has to be deterrent and punitive action in order for Iran to know that no sinister act will go unpunished; that action, in our opinion, should be a calculated surgical strike.
