The Religious Policeman

There were no terrorist shoot-outs here yesterday, Alhamdulillah (Thanks be to God), as we say here. However there is a deep sense of unease and tension in the air, because these incidents have always in the past been followed by a terrorist attack. The US Embassy is well aware, and is evacuating its staff.

US citizens urged to leave Saudi

The US government has issued a travel warning advising US citizens to leave Saudi Arabia.
The warning said US officials had received recent and credible information that terrorist attacks were being planned in the country.

All non-essential US diplomats and all diplomats' family members have been ordered to leave, and private citizens are strongly urged to depart.

In the past, these attacks have been against Western housing compounds. Paradoxically, these were intended to provide security to Westerners; however they result in concentrating all the targets in one place. As a Western colleague said, "It's like being in the film "Zulu", and we're just waiting for the hordes to come pouring over the walls". A bit over-dramatic, perhaps, but I can understand his basic concern.
Not that the rest of us can feel any more relaxed. Al Qaeeda like high-profile targets, and what could be more high profile than the Faisaliah and Kingdom towers in Riyadh?



So for the next few days we'll avoid the shops in the base of those towers, or indeed anywhere within the "collapse radius". We'll go shopping in the less fashionable areas that hopefully don't present such an interesting target.

This is no way to live.