Finally a copy of Trofimov’s The Seige of the Grand Mosque, a bag of violet creams and a Saturday lie-in.
For those who don’t know the story, Juhayman was a Sunni fundamentalist out of the National Guard who, getting all hissy-fit about such things as the behaviour of senior princes and television being allowed in the Kingdom, suddenly spotted the Mahdi amongst his close friends and relations (kind of like realizing your small cousin is the second coming), and as a way of throwing his boy a welcome party, promptly took over the Grand Mosque, seized about 400 hostages and started taking potshots at perambulating princes from sniper nests in the Minarets
According to Trofimov, the raggle-taggle bunch of followers (including, in a nice inversion, two Americans) smuggled guns in in coffins to be blessed, and had a great deal of knowledge about the complex of underground tunnels and cellars under the mosque. Known as the Qaboo, this complex became an essentially invulnerable centre from which 1- 200 rebels fought the Saudi army. In those days the army numbered only 20 – 30,000 men, and Juhayman’s crew were able to inflict some serious collateral damage.
This was 1979 – year of all-around interesting times. The weeks preceding the siege saw the sacking of the American embassy in Iran. While Carter swore blind that this would prove an isolated incident, the Ayatollahs pumped out sufficient propaganda to persuade half the world that the Americans were behind the attack on the Grand Mosque. Result: American embassies then sacked from Libya to Bangladesh, including the notorious firing of the American embassy in Islamabad.
Juhayman’s militants were aided by a number of factors, which included the Saudi’s reluctant to break the prohibition on fighting in holy places, a reluctance from the Wahabi clerics to criticize or condemn that nice religious boy Juhayman and competition within the chain of command (three senior princes, three private armies, all had to be involved in the assault, and none of their radios could even speak to one another).
The generally rubbish response also included an episode in which the ever effective Saudi military chucked gas canisters down into the cellars in order to flush out the militants hiding there. Perched up above to watch the effects, they apparently forgot that CS gas rises. After that they got the French in.
For those who don’t know the story, Juhayman was a Sunni fundamentalist out of the National Guard who, getting all hissy-fit about such things as the behaviour of senior princes and television being allowed in the Kingdom, suddenly spotted the Mahdi amongst his close friends and relations (kind of like realizing your small cousin is the second coming), and as a way of throwing his boy a welcome party, promptly took over the Grand Mosque, seized about 400 hostages and started taking potshots at perambulating princes from sniper nests in the Minarets
According to Trofimov, the raggle-taggle bunch of followers (including, in a nice inversion, two Americans) smuggled guns in in coffins to be blessed, and had a great deal of knowledge about the complex of underground tunnels and cellars under the mosque. Known as the Qaboo, this complex became an essentially invulnerable centre from which 1- 200 rebels fought the Saudi army. In those days the army numbered only 20 – 30,000 men, and Juhayman’s crew were able to inflict some serious collateral damage.
This was 1979 – year of all-around interesting times. The weeks preceding the siege saw the sacking of the American embassy in Iran. While Carter swore blind that this would prove an isolated incident, the Ayatollahs pumped out sufficient propaganda to persuade half the world that the Americans were behind the attack on the Grand Mosque. Result: American embassies then sacked from Libya to Bangladesh, including the notorious firing of the American embassy in Islamabad.
Juhayman’s militants were aided by a number of factors, which included the Saudi’s reluctant to break the prohibition on fighting in holy places, a reluctance from the Wahabi clerics to criticize or condemn that nice religious boy Juhayman and competition within the chain of command (three senior princes, three private armies, all had to be involved in the assault, and none of their radios could even speak to one another).
The generally rubbish response also included an episode in which the ever effective Saudi military chucked gas canisters down into the cellars in order to flush out the militants hiding there. Perched up above to watch the effects, they apparently forgot that CS gas rises. After that they got the French in.
The Saudi state dependent on foreign military aid - how far away those days seem now.
Hum.
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