‘WESTERN POWERS BEHIND TERROR ATTACKS IN SAUDI’

Manama

Dawa Director Discover Islam Bahrain Shaikh Ahmad Khan yesterday held Western powers responsible for the recent wave of suicide bomb attacks in the Gulf region. He was speaking to DT News in the aftermath of the suicide bomb attack on a Saudi mosque at the Yemen border killing 15 people, including 12 security guards. Islamic State had claimed the responsibility of the attack.

Earlier in May, Najd Province, affiliated to IS, had claimed that it was behind the two suicide attacks – first on a Shia Mosque in Qatif, in which at least 21 people were killed and second, only a week later, at the Shia mosque in Dammam, leaving four people dead.

However, Shaikh Ahmad slammed the claims and said the Western powers, including USA, are behind the attacks with an aim to put pressure on Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabia is a financial backbone of the whole Gulf region. It supports Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Oman and many other countries in the area. “If Saudi Arabia is besieged, it will create panic in the whole region. Once that happens it will not be easy to recuperate,” he said.

He added no one has been able to verify IS’s claims yet. “What is IS and who is controlling it? The answers to these questions are still unclear. The name of IS is nowadays being used just like that of the “Taliban” in Pakistan,” he said.

He stated IS was just a puppet in their hands of the Western powers. “The attack involved a lot of money and a well-planned strategy, which IS was not in a position to achieve without help,” he said.

Meanwhile, MP and Head of Public Utilities and Enviornment Committee Jamal Dawood said the GCC countries should sit together to formulate a new security policy addressing all the security issues, in view of the recent terror attacks.

“All the six ministries - the ministries of Interior, Education, Information, Youth and Sports, Justice and Islamic Affairs and Social Development - should sit together to devise a comprehensive plan to educate the people on how to counter the propaganda by the terrorists at all levels, especially in the social media,” he said.