CIA director John
Brennan said on Wednesday recent attacks in Saudi Arabia bore the
hallmarks of Islamic State, and that the militant group was a very
serious threat to the kingdom.
Suicide
bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia earlier this month,
killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated
campaign of attacks on the penultimate day of the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
“Those attacks bear the
hallmarks of ISIL,” Brennan said at an event hosted by the Brookings
Institution think tank, using an acronym for Islamic State.
The explosions struck in Jeddah, Qatif and a
security headquarters in the holy city of Medina, an attack Brennan
described as “unprecedented”.
The attacks were
not claimed by any group although the Saudi government believes Islamic
State is responsible after detaining 19 suspects linked to the five
attackers.
Brennan said that
while al Qaeda still posed a threat to Saudi Arabia, which had launched a
fierce crackdown on the militant group in the early 2000s, Islamic
State posed a greater danger to the kingdom.
Islamic
State militants have carried out similar bombings in the U.S.-allied,
Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom in the past year, targeting minority Shi’ites
and Saudi security forces.
