Yet again, security forces have shown that when terrorists strike, they strike back. Following Friday’s attack in Abqaiq, five men suspected of involvement were tracked to a house in Riyadh and killed in the ensuing shootout while a sixth was arrested in a separate dawn raid on a house in the capital. What this says is that counterterrorist measures are working well; security forces can react quickly and decisively.
It was the same story two months ago after a shootout at a roadblock in Al-Qassim province which left five policemen and a suspected terrorist dead with another managing to escape; within hours, the fugitive had been tracked down and killed in a shootout. It was the same in Dammam last September when, after a gun battle outside a city supermarket, militants were tracked down and killed in a house siege. It was the same too ten months earlier — and there had not been an incident in the intervening period — when police quickly tracked down suspected militants to a house in Riyadh following a shootout after a routine roadblock inspection; again, three suspects were killed in the subsequent gun battle. The message should be getting home to would-be militants. They get caught; they get killed. There is an inevitability to it.
Militancy is a hydra-headed monster; no sooner than one group is cut down, another takes its place. That raises issues about strategy. It is not easy across the Muslim world to end recruitment by Al-Qaeda when impressionable and angry young men (and women) are exposed to daily reports of violence and gross injustice in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya and Afghanistan as well as to fantasies from some militant preachers about Western, Jewish and Christian plans to attack and destroy Islam. It has to be a matter of presentation and handling — and education.
This week’s speed in tracking down the militants suggests that they are disorganized. They may be linked to Al-Qaeda or may not be, but they have sympathizers who provide them with equipment and weapons. How otherwise, did those responsible for the Abqaiq attack get hold of guns and the right sort of vehicles for the attack?
There are still some 22 of the 26 wanted terrorists at large with 21 believed to be outside the country; but one can never be too sure where they are or what they might be plotting next. A constant flow of information is needed about them and their plans — and about any others who may be so misguided as to join them. The authorities need to capture as many of these people alive as possible; the information they could provide is of vital importance in the fight against terrorism, not just here but worldwide. Information is the best weapon against the terrorists. Clearly, the authorities have a certain amount; otherwise they would not have been able to track down these latest militants so quickly. Nor would they, last month, have been able to move in on a terrorist bomb factory in a house in Riyadh. But one can never have too much. That must be the security forces’ main objective.
