Saudis executed two for militant attack

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia executed two men from Chad yesterday for their part in a militant attack a decade ago, its Interior Ministry said.

Issa Saleh Hassan Barkaj and Ishaq Issa Ahmed Shakila were executed in Mecca. Death sentences in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by public beheading.

The pair were convicted of joining an al-Qaeda cell; of embracing takfiri ideology – the practice of proclaiming others infidels; of killing French national Laurent Barbot in 2004; and of the attempted shooting of foreign officials.

Saudi Arabia detained more than 11 000 people during and after the al-Qaeda attacks that targeted Western expatriates and government officials from 2003 to 2006, killing hundreds, and eventually crushed the group inside the kingdom’s borders.

Many of those convicted have since been sentenced to death. Others were given long prison terms for their part in the attacks and for other militant activities.

Over the past year, a new wave of attacks, mostly claimed by Saudis sympathising with Islamic State, have killed dozens in suicide bombings and shootings in the kingdom. They have targeted security officials and members of the Shia Muslim minority.

Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Saudi Arabia’s Al Saud ruling family share a belief in conservative Sunni Islam and the rigid implementation of sharia law. But both militant groups regard the ruling family as illegitimate, accusing it of corruption and of betraying Muslims through its close ties to the West. – Reuters