Islamic extremists celebrate Saudi king’s death

Al-Qaeda supporters ridicule King Abdullah online for the monarch’s US ties and his fight against terrorism

By AP 23 January 2015, 6:54 pm

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King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Monday, May 14, 2012 (photo credit: AP/Hassan Ammar, File)

BEIRUT — Islamic extremists and their supporters celebrated the death of Saudi King Abdullah on social media Friday, many of them describing him as a “servant” of the Americans who conspired with the West to kill Muslims.

Abdullah, who died at the age of 90, began battling al-Qaeda militants around a decade ago when extremists launched a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Backed by the kingdom’s top ally, the United States, Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown and has imprisoned suspected extremists and sentenced others to death.

Many Islamic extremists consider the Saudi royal family to be corrupt. The Islamic State group, an al-Qaeda breakaway group that currently holds a third of Iraq and Syria, often cites Islam’s holiest city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, as one of its targets. Saudi Arabia is also part of a US-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in airstrikes.

A man who identifies himself as an Islamic State supporter who uses the name Abu Azzam al-Najdi criticized the late king on Twitter, saying: “He sent his warplanes to kill Muslims in (Syria). He imprisoned Muslim men and women and wherever there was a war against jihadis, he was the first.”

A file picture taken on November 14, 2008 shows Saudi King Abdullah (L) being greeted by then US President George W. Bush (R) on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC, prior to a dinner with leaders attending the Summit on Financial Markets. (Photo credit: AFP/ Files / Jim WATSON)

Some loyalists of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group also used a hashtag that translates from Arabic into “Death of a Tyrant.”

Social media provides a forum for militants and their supporters to air their statements and propaganda videos. Such users typically do not give their full names, if at all, using instead nicknames and pseudonyms.

A jihadi supporter who identified himself by the name of Omar wrote in English: “The dog that was occupying (the land of the two holy shrines) has finally kicked the bucket, no Bush or Obama to save you from Allah.”

One user posted a photo illustration of King Abdullah wearing an orange uniform as a masked man stood behind him carrying a knife to behead him.

“We don’t want him to die. We want to slaughter him this way,” the post said, referring to Saudi Arabia’s tradition of beheading criminals.