Saudi Arabia next ISIL target if Syria falls: Russia

Saudi Arabia next ISIL target if Syria falls: Russia

Thu Jun 25, 2015 12:32PM

A file photo of ISIL Takfiri terrorists

A senior Russian official warns that Saudi Arabia will be the next target of the ISIL terror group if Syria falls into the hands of the extremist militants.
“I believe that countries of this region - Saudi Arabia, Persian Gulf states and maybe others should pray for [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad. This is the last frontier of their security,” Tass news agency quoted Russian Deputy Security Council chief Yevgeny Lukyanov as saying on Wednesday.
He added that if the government of President Assad falls, then the ISIL’s next target will be Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states.

Some 5,000 Saudi nationals have joined the ranks of the ISIL, Lukyanov said, waning, “When the active phase of confrontation ends there, where will they go? They will come back [home]. What can they do? They can only kill people.”

He further said that no country in the world can be immune to acts of terrorism.

Back in May, ISIL claimed responsibility for deadly bombing attacks targeting two Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia’s Shia-majority Eastern Province.

Saudi security forces and forensic personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack that targeted a mosque in the Saudi city of Dammam, May 29, 2015. (© AFP)

The terrorist outfit, which is widely believed to be receiving support from certain regional countries, including Saudi Arabia itself, has called for more attacks against Saudi Shias through one of its groups inside the Saudi kingdom.
ISIL Takfirism is largely influenced by Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by Saudi scholars.
Riyadh has long been accused of supporting terrorist organizations such as the ISIL in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere as claimed by the governments in Damascus and Baghdad.
MR/MKA/HMV