ISIS declares war on Shias on Arabian Peninsula – monitoring group
The Saudi division of the Islamic State jihadist group has called on jihadist supporters to clear the Arabian Peninsula of Shia Muslims in an audio recording, according to a US-based monitoring group.
In the 13-minute recording a representative of IS (Islamic State,
formerly ISIS/ISIL) militant group's division in Najd Province, a
region in the central Arabian Peninsula, urged supporters to
declare war on “enemies of Islam, especially Shiites” on
the peninsula’s territory, SITE monitoring group reported on
Friday.
The man called Shias “disbelievers and apostates” urging
followers to “purify the land” of them. The speaker also
made reference to the suicide bombing on May 22 in the town of
al-Qadeeh, Qatif province in the east of the country on a Shiite
mosque. As the result of the bombing 21 people died and more than
50 were wounded.
The Shia minority in Saudi Arabia has long complained of
discrimination by the Sunni majority. The attack in al-Qadeeh was
the first to target Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia since November,
when a gunman killed at least eight people.
In the recording the IS supporters urged young Saudis to fend off
the "Shiite threat" and criticized the kingdom’s current
government and King Salman for failing to protect the Sunni
majority. Earlier in May IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dismissed
Saudi Arabia's ruling family accusing it of supporting enemies
such as the West and Israel.
On Sunday, King Salman vowed to track down and punish those
responsible for a suicide bombing at the Shia mosque despite
increasing tensions between Sunnis and Shias in the region. Saudi
Arabia is leading the military campaign against Houthis in
neighboring Yemen allied to Shia power Iran.
The Kingdom is also is part of an international coalition
carrying out air strikes on IS positions in Iraq and Syria. The
jihadists have vowed to carry out revenge attacks.
