Saudi attack raises stakes in sectarian war

Monday’s terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province which left seven dead and 12 wounded is a brutal reminder of how a sectarian war raging in Syria and Iraq has spilled over into the Kingdom.

The attackers were deliberate in their planning, choosing the quiet village of Al-Dalwah, about two hours’ drive southwest of the coastal city of Dammam.

Al-Dalwah is a mixed community of Sunnis and Shias which had experienced none of the protests that have rocked the eastern province since the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011.

In a country where protests are banned, Shia members of the population in the oil-rich province have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers to protest against the ruling Al-Saud family.

The Shia form the majority population in the eastern province but have long complained of discrimination and economic marginalisation at the hands of Al-Saud.

The authorities have dealt harshly with the protesters. In the past three years, at least 20 have been shot dead by police and hundreds arrested. In places including Qatif security is tight and checkpoints frequent.

But in Al-Dalwah security was lax so it was easy for the killers to gain access to their target, a group of young Shia who had just left a Hussainia, a congregation hall where they had attended an Ashura ceremony honouring the Prophet Mohamed (PBUH)’s grandson Imam Hussain.

Hussain’s death in battle in 680AD was the key moment that divided Islam into its Sunni and Shia sects.

Three masked gunmen wielding machine guns leapt out of a car and sprayed the crowd with gunfire. The attack lasted for little more than five minutes and when it was over the dead and dying lay in a street littered with spent cartridge shells. The victims included a 12-year-old.

The leader of the terror attack is believed to be a Saudi jihadist who had fought in Syria. Although the Saudi authorities moved quickly against the gunmen and their accomplices, the incident, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, has left the region and the country badly shaken.

Saudi media carried reports of what was called a “criminal attack” without describing its sectarian nature.

The country’s supreme council of Sunni clerics immediately condemned the shooting and called for Saudis to “close ranks in standing up against the treacherous criminals”.

“The enemies of our religion and our homeland aim to attack our unity and stability,” the council said in a statement.

The three gunmen and six others were apprehended within hours of the attack. Two suspects and two police officers were killed in the central Saudi city of Buraidah as part of the same operation.

The speed with which the authorities made the arrests suggests that at least some of the terrorists had been under surveillance.

However, the killings confirm a deep anxiety that jihadists returning from the frontlines in Syria and Iraq are an increasingly dangerous threat to the Kingdom’s stability.

A Shia commentator in the eastern province, who did not want to be identified, told MEMO that in the wake of a death sentence passed on a senior Shia cleric in mid-October, the region was “already very tense”.

Nimr Al-Nimr was convicted for “disobeying the ruler”, “inciting sectarian strife”, and encouraging and leading demonstrations.

The commentator said that although the situation was fraught, “nobody expected these kinds of shootings. This was an attempt to stir up sectarian hatred”.

He told of scenes of chaos at the local hospital as the wounded and dead were brought in. “A nurse rushed to help and she saw that one of the dead was her brother.”

The commentator said that the quick arrests and the statement by the supreme council of Sunni clerics had been reassuring as had the visit by the provincial governor to the hospital to speak with the wounded.

However, people in the eastern province remain deeply worried that this could be the beginning of a bloody anti-Shia campaign by Sunni jihadists allied to the Islamic State (ISIS), he explained.

Were that to happen and the authorities unable to stop it, a new and dangerous front will have opened in a sectarian war already threatening to engulf the region.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.