Blast Rocks Mosque in Saudi Arabia, Killing at Least 1

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a mosque in southern Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing one person and wounding several others, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The blast went off shortly after nightfall in the city of Najran, near the country's southern border with Yemen. It was the latest in a series of bombings that have targeted mosques in the oil-rich kingdom in recent months.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the bomber detonated his device as worshippers were leaving sunset prayers. He said several wounded victims were being treated in nearby hospitals, and that authorities have launched an investigation.

Najran is the capital of a border region of the same name that is home to a large concentration of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's Ismaili Shiite minority.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/26/world/middleeast/ap-ml-saudi-arabia.html

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1. China data: Russian crude tops Saudi Arabian supply again on strong spot buying

Singapore (Platts)--26 Oct 2015 459 am EDT/859 GMT

China's crude imports from Russia surpassed those from Saudi Arabia for the second time to hit a new monthly record high of 4.04 million mt in September amid strong spot buying.

September arrivals from Russia jumped 42.3% year on year and 31% from August, making the country the top crude supplier to China for the month, according to detailed data from China's General Administration of Customs released Friday.

Russia was China's top crude supplier for the first time in May, sending 3.92 million mt.

But September imports from Saudi Arabia fell 16.6% year on year and edged up 1.1% from August to 3.95 million mt.

http://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/singapore/china-data-russian-crude-tops-saudi-arabian-supply-27909496

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2. Lebanon's Hezbollah takes aim at Saudi Arabia on Ashura

Supporters of Lebanon's Iran-allied Shi'ite group Hezbollah chanted "Death to the Saud family" as their leader railed against Sunni-led Saudi Arabia on Saturday in a sign of deepening hostility towards the U.S.-allied kingdom.

Speaking on Ashura, the day on which Shi'ites commemorate the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah listed the Saudi leadership alongside traditional enemies Israel and the United States.

His armed group is an important player in the struggle playing out across the Middle East between the conservative Sunni Muslim-led government of Saudi Arabia and the Shi'ite Islamist government of Iran.

Thousands of its fighters are in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad, taking part in a new ground offensive also backed by Iranian forces and Russian air strikes against insurgents who have received Gulf Arab backing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/24/us-mideast-crisis-hezbollah-idUSKCN0SI0HQ20151024

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3. It's Time to Talk About Saudi Arabia

In the House of Commons this past Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond made two announcements pertaining to Saudi Arabia that sounded like they came straight out of the ninth century. The first was that thanks to British diplomacy, Hammond did "not expect" that a young political activist named Ali Mohammed al-Nimr - who had been sentenced by a Saudi court to "beheading and crucifixion" for the crime of attending a pro-democracy rally when he was 17 years old - would be put to death after all. The second was that a 74 year-old British grandfather named Karl Andee - an asthmatic, three-time cancer survivor living in Saudi Arabia who has spent the past year in jail for the crime of possessing homemade wine - would likely be spared the 350 lashes to which he had also been sentenced and which his children feared would surely kill him.

For those not up on their medieval execution methods, one story helpfully explained that had the sentence against Al-Nimr been carried out, the Saudi way dictates that his head would have been cut off with a sword, and then his headless body would have been publicly displayed as a lesson to others who would dare challenge the Saudi monarchy. Meanwhile, an Arab News columnist reflected on the grandfather's case without a trace of irony, noting that while it is well-known that "alcohol is hazardous to health," 360 lashes with a long, hard cane is "not a matter of inflicting pain but more of a moral punishment" - because, according to the Saudi way, "lashing is done through a careful procedure," with the "elbow planted firmly to the side," and with "only the quick movement of the hand from the wrist. It is not the pain," he clarified, clearly never having felt 350 lashes. "It is the shame."

Somehow lost in translation was that Saudi Arabia should feel any shame for continuing to practice a kind of daily, institutional barbarism - guided by a strain of sharia law rooted in the ultra-extreme Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam - that matches the stomach-turning public atrocities committed by the jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This is a nation that reportedly beheaded 90 people last year and more than 100 so far this year. It is a country in which victims of gang rape have been sentenced to prison and 200 lashes; in which an acceptable punishment for women accused of adultery is to bury them in the ground to their head and then allow a circle of men to stone them to death; in which women aren't allowed to work, travel, drive or even leave the house without permission from their male "guardians."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanley-weiss/its-time-to-talk-about-sa_b_8363936.html

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4. BBC Protects U.K.’s Close Ally Saudi Arabia With Incredibly Dishonest and Biased Editing

The BBC loves to boast about how “objective” and “neutral” it is. But a recent article, which it was forced to change, illustrates the lengths to which the British state-funded media outlet will go to protect one of the U.K. government’s closest allies, Saudi Arabia, which also happens to be one of the country’s largest arms purchasers (just this morning, the Saudi ambassador to the U.K. threatened in an op-ed that any further criticism of the Riyadh regime by Jeremy Corbyn could jeopardize the multi-layered U.K./Saudi alliance).

Earlier this month, the BBC published an article describing the increase in weapons and money sent by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf regimes to anti-Assad fighters in Syria. All of that “reporting” was based on the claims of what the BBC called “a Saudi government official,” who — because he works for a government closely allied with the U.K. — was granted anonymity by the BBC and then had his claims mindlessly and uncritically presented as fact (it is the rare exception when the BBC reports adversarially on the Saudis). This anonymous “Saudi official” wasn’t whistleblowing or presenting information contrary to the interests of the regime; to the contrary, he was disseminating official information the regime wanted publicized. This was the key claim of the anonymous Saudi official (emphasis added):

The well-placed official, who asked not to be named, said supplies of modern, high-powered weaponry including guided anti-tank weapons would be increased to the Arab- and western-backed rebel groups fighting the forces of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies.

He said those groups being supplied did not include either Islamic State (IS) or al-Nusra Front, both of which are proscribed terrorist organizations. Instead, he said the weapons would go to three rebel alliances — Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Southern Front.

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/26/bbc-protects-uks-close-ally-saudi-arabia-with-incredibly-dishonest-and-biased-editing/

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5. . nt

[KoKo]

10. Glenn's view:

From the Article which is Glenn, at his very best imho, nitpicking the media hypocrisy:

But what this does highlight is just how ludicrous — how beyond parody — the 14-year-old war on terror has become, how little it has to do with its original ostensible justification. The regime with the greatest plausible proximity to the 9/11 attack — Saudi Arabia — is the closest U.S. ally in the region next to Israel. The country that had absolutely nothing to do with that attack, and which is at least as threatened as the U.S. by the religious ideology that spurred it — Iran — is the U.S.’s greatest war-on-terror adversary. Now we have a virtual admission from the Saudis that they are arming a group that centrally includes al Qaeda, while the U.S. itself has at least indirectly done the same (just as was true in Libya). And we’re actually at the point where western media outlets are vehemently denouncing Russia for bombing al Qaeda elements, which those outlets are manipulatively referring to as “non-ISIS groups.”

It’s not a stretch to say that the faction that provides the greatest material support to al Qaeda at this point is the U.S. and its closest allies. That is true even as al Qaeda continues to be paraded around as the prime need for the ongoing war.

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6. White House divided over Saudi airstrikes

Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes in Yemen, conducted with U.S. assistance, are alleged to have killed at least 1,500 civilians, dividing members of the Obama administration over whether the U.S. risks being accused of abetting war crimes in a bombing campaign that could ultimately strengthen Islamist militants.

Sources inside the administration say they are struggling to keep in check the opposing sides in Yemen, one of the clearest examples of the intensifying Saudi-Iran proxy war in the Middle East. But even as reports of civilian suffering and terrorist gains pile up, U.S. officials believe that reducing American support for the Saudis could make the situation even worse.

The White House does not want to anger Saudi Arabia, a vital, oil-rich ally already unhappy with President Barack Obama’s decision to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran. At the same time, what many hoped would be a short Saudi-led campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overthrew Yemen’s government, is now entering its eighth month with no end in sight.

“The White House is increasingly frustrated with the Saudis, and they’re trying to figure out how to handle it,” said one foreign policy expert familiar with the administration’s deliberations. Private conversations seem to be having limited effect, the source said, but “the U.S. is walking on such eggshells around Saudi when it comes to the public domain that they’re not willing to ramp up their public pressure.”

http://www.politico.eu/article/white-house-saudi-airstrikes-obama-yemen-military-attacks/

[KoKo]

7. Thanks for all the updates on the Saudi's. eom

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8. +1. nt

[KoKo]

9. When one looks at the series of bombings in SA (from the article)

I had forgotten how many "incidents" SA has had recently. Plus, there was that tragedy at Mecca.

Maybe the Saudi's are finally recognizing that they aren't going to be untouched by all the rest of the violence swirling around them? They've been able to control things for so long with U.S allegiance and our military aid that they were able to ignore the carnage and suffering in the rest of the ME.

But, now that the U.S. is less dependent on their oil and the targeted violence has come to them....is this finally the way to get them to the bargaining table to sign onto the proposals Lavrov, Kerry and others are proposing?


From the Article:

Suspicion is likely to fall on the Islamic State militant group. It considers Shiites to be heretics and seeks to weaken the ruling Al-Saud family's legitimacy and custodianship of Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina

The group's two Saudi affiliates have claimed three significant bombings, targeting mosques in Saudi Arabia and another in neighboring Kuwait since May.

The most recent happened in August when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque inside a police compound in the southern city of Abha, some 350 miles south of the holy city of Mecca. That blast killed 15, many of them members of an elite counterterrorism unit whose tasks include protecting the hajj pilgrimage. It was the country's deadliest attack on security forces in years.

Earlier this month, a previously unheard of IS branch calling itself "Bahrain Province" claimed responsibility for a shooting attack targeting Shiite worshippers in eastern Saudi Arabia that killed five. State TV said that attacker wore an explosives belt but was shot dead before he could detonate the explosives.

As it tries to contain IS operations in the country, Saudi Arabia is also leading a coalition of countries fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen that have taken over the capital and other parts of the country.

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11. IS claimed that bombing.

Down by the Yemen border, where there are Shi'ia to bomb. They want to start a Shi'ia insurrection so they can move in and take over.

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12. The Sauds are nuts, basically, and I wouldn't want to try to describe their "thinking".

But I expect they will still do what is in their self-interest, once it explained forcefully enough to them, and if not then they will soon be gone.

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13. Islamists rise as chaos descends in Yemen's cosmopolitan port

In Aden, Yemen's most cosmopolitan city, the masked Islamist gunmen seem to have burst onto the streets from some other world.

They storm university classrooms to demand men and women to stop studying together, charge into supermarkets firing in the air to force the female cashiers to cover up, harass families celebrating a Muslim holiday on the beach.

Three weeks ago, four suicide bombers detonated car bombs at a temporary Yemeni government headquarters and two Arab coalition outposts.

With that, Islamic State served notice that it was bringing its bloody campaign for a Sunni Muslim caliphate to a city where separatist fighters, Arab armies and an embattled rump government had just forced out Shi'ite militiamen. For many residents, it now seems like a baffling conflict is about to enter its darkest phase.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/27/us-yemen-security-aden-insight-idUSKCN0SL0S320151027

ETA: Gee, who could have predicted this?

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14. Beleaguered Saudis Consider Cutting Domestic Fuel Subsidies

Stocks plunged in Riyadh today as the country’s oil minister acknowledged that the House of Saud is thinking about cutting a popular fuel subsidy. Crunched by cheap oil, the petrostate is looking everywhere for ways to save money, and the regime’s price support for gasoline could be on the chopping block. The WSJ reports:

Asked if the kingdom is considering cutting energy subsidies in the near term, [Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi] told reporters in Riyadh: “What you are asking is: is it under study? And the answer is yes.”

Saudi domestic energy prices are among the lowest in the world. The country, the de-facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is losing potential export revenue by selling oil domestically very cheaply when international buyers pay much higher prices.

The country currently spends around $86 billion a year on subsidies for petroleum products like motor fuel, making a gallon of regular gasoline cost about 46 cents.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/10/27/beleaguered-saudis-consider-cutting-domestic-fuel-subsidies/

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15. The Arabian dream: Colombians taking part in Yemen war

Some 800 former Colombian military troops will enter the city port of Aden in Yemen, switching the jungle terrain of their home country for the deserts of Arabia.

The former Colombian army troops will join a coalition of allied international troops fighting Shiite rebels. They will operate under the service of the UAE Armed Forces, donning a Saudi uniform in defense of the Yemeni government.

Domestic hostilities with Shiite rebels that have grown since their initiation in 2004, with the UN reporting the situation to be “on the brink of a civil war.”

After over 50 years of civil war in their home country the Colombian military officials have a vast experience in this area, though a change in scenery will provide a variety of different challenges.

http://colombiareports.com/the-arabian-dream-colombians-taking-part-in-yemen-war/

[KoKo]

16. Bizarre... Colombian Mercenaries in "SA"

From Article Comments:

K. Pena • a day ago

Yeah, because there's not enough war here for would-be guerreros...

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17. Yeah.

War lovers. They go where the money is. They were out of fashion for a long time, it was all conscript armies, big conscript armies, but it seems mercenaries have come back into vogue these days. I suppose you could call that privatization.