The ultimate goals

The recent early morning clash between a Saudi border patrol and extremists trying to enter Saudi Arabia from Iraq appears to be the latest indicator of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) intent to expand its influence and control from its stronghold in Syria and Iraq south into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the rest of the Arab Gulf where there is oil and what ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his followers would consider the ultimate prizes: the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

…In recent months, al-Baghdadi has issued calls for attacks inside Saudi Arabia. Violence against Shia residents in the Eastern Province town of al-Awamiya in Saudi Arabia confirms that Sunni extremists in this area have heard al-Baghdadi’s message. The Eastern Province is home to the majority of Saudi Shia and most of the Saudi Kingdom’s oil.

…Kuwait and the other Gulf states, particularly Bahrain, also have large Shia populations, which are prime targets for ISIS to attack. The enmity between Sunnis and Shia in these areas is likely to draw more radically inclined Sunnis to al-Baghdadi’s virulent form of Islam.

ISIS Aims to Occupy Mecca