The government of Saudi Arabia has arrested 88 it says were “on the verge of carrying out operations,” news agencies are reporting. The move is the latest in an ongoing crackdown on extremism.
The arrests follow remarks made by King Abdullah over the weekend to foreign Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia in which the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques cautioned Western governments that extremism spread by the Islamic State is likely to spread west if unchecked.
“I ask you to convey this message to your leaders… Terrorism at this time is an evil force that must be fought with wisdom and speed…and if neglected I’m sure after a month it will arrive in Europe and a month after that in America,” King Abdullah told the Ambassadors in Riyadh.
The Islamic State, an extremist group that has seized territory in Iraq from positions in Syria this summer, today made fresh headlines as the group reportedly conducted another gruesome execution of an American journalist in a video.
U.S. President Obama is forming a strategy to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and is already conducting airstrikes against IS positions that are starting to weaken the group’s grip on certain areas of Iraq.
Saudi Arabia’s Interior Minister sits with U.S. Homeland Security officials in May 2014.
Obama’s “cautious” approach to fighting the group is drawing some criticism in the United States, even within President Obama’s own party. Democratic Senator “Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “I think I’ve learned one thing about this President and that is he’s very cautious. Maybe in this instance, too cautious,” CNN reported.
Although assailed from both parties for his careful approach, U.S. airstrikes authorized by the Obama Administration on the Islamic State continue. On Tuesday, CENTCOM confirmed that U.S. airplanes conducted a strike on IS positions near a dam outside the Iraqi city of Mosul, destroying or damaging 16 armored vehicles used by the group. The strike was the 124th confirmed air attack on IS positions.
The U.S. Defense department said that the mission in Iraq was “very clear…We are there to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces as they take the fight to ISIL. We are there to provide humanitarian assistance where and when we can,” said Rear Admiral John Kirby from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the U.S. public wary of future conflicts abroad, but a recent poll conducted by the Huffington Post/YouGov found that “a majority of Americans think the United States should expand its military campaign against ISIS insurgents in Iraq into Syria as well,” with 60% in favor of such action.
