IS threatens Saudi prisons over executions

Recent executions by Saudi Arabia have prompted threats by Islamic State to destroy any of the country's prisons holding jihadists.

Self-Proclaimed Islamic State

Self-Proclaimed Islamic State

Islamic State has threatened to destroy Saudi Arabian prisons holding jihadists after Riyadh's execution of 47 people including 43 convicted al Qaeda militants.

The militant group, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in the kingdom and stepped up operations in neighbouring Yemen, singled out the al-Ha'ir and Tarfiya prisons where many al Qaeda and Islamic State supporters have been detained.

"The Islamic State always seeks to free prisoners, but we calculate that the ending of the issues of prisoners will not happen except with the eradication of the rule of tyrants, and then destroying their prisons and razing them to the ground," it said in an article posted online on Tuesday.
An Islamic State supporter killed himself in a car bomb at a checkpoint outside Ha'ir prison near Riyadh in July.

While Islamic State and al Qaeda are rivals who have condemned each other on ideological grounds, they are both united in enmity towards Saudi Arabia, which has declared them terrorist groups and locked up thousands of their supporters.

Riyadh's mass execution on Saturday included four Shi'ite Muslims, among them prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a move that heightened sectarian tensions with Shi'ite power Iran. But analysts say it was mostly meant as a message to militant Sunnis.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings and shootings in Saudi Arabia since November 2014 that have killed more than 50 people, most of them Shi'ites but also more than 15 members of the security forces.

Saudi security officials say the group's supporters inside Saudi Arabia mainly act independently, depending on Islamic State for only limited logistical help and advice, making them harder to detect, but also less capable of attacks on well protected targets.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Pensinula (AQAP) threatened in December to "shed the blood of the soldiers of Al Saud" if its members were executed.

AQAP is the Yemen-based wing of the global militant movement and was formed by local jihadists and veterans of al Qaeda's earlier uprising in Saudi Arabia from 2003-06, for participation in which most of those executed on Saturday were convicted.


Share
2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world