Grand Mosque seizure
The Grand Mosque seizure in Saudi Arabia took place between 20 November 1979 and 4 December 1979, when the Grand Mosque of Mecca was besieged by up to 600 militants under the leadership of Juhayman al-Otaybi, a Saudi anti-monarchy Salafi Islamist from the Tribe of Otaibah. They identified themselves as "al-Ikhwan" (Arabic: الإخوان), referring to the religious Arabian militia[5] that had played a significant role in establishing the Saudi state in the early 20th century. As they took hostages from among the worshippers at the holiest Islamic site in the city of Mecca, the Ikhwan called for an uprising against the House of Saud and also declared that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of the militants' leaders: Muhammad Abdullah al-Qahtani. Juhayman alleged that the House of Saud had become corrupted, decrying their pursuit of alliances with "Christian infidels" and stating that the Saudi government's policies were betraying Islam by attempting to push secularism into Saudi society. Seeking assistance for their counteroffensive against the Ikhwan, the Saudis requested urgent aid from France, which responded by dispatching advisory units from the GIGN. After French operatives provided them with a special type of tear gas that dulls aggression and obstructs breathing, Saudi troops gassed the interior of the Grand Mosque and forced entry. They successfully secured the site after two weeks of fighting, which culminated in approximately 800 casualties in total.[9]
In the process of retaking the Grand Mosque, the Saudi military had killed the self-proclaimed messiah al-Qahtani. Juhayman and 68 of the militants were captured alive and later sentenced to death by Saudi authorities, being executed by beheading in public displays across a number of Saudi cities.[10][11][12] The Ikhwan's siege of the Grand Mosque, which had occurred amidst the Islamic Revolution in nearby Iran, prompted further unrest across the Muslim world. Large-scale anti-American riots broke out in many Muslim-majority countries after Iranian religious cleric Ruhollah Khomeini falsely claimed over a radio broadcast that the Grand Mosque seizure had been orchestrated by the United States and Israel.
Following the attack, Saudi king Khalid bin Abdulaziz enforced a stricter system of Islamic law throughout the country[13] and also gave the ulama more power over the next decade. Likewise, Saudi Arabia's Islamic religious police became more assertive.[14]
Seizure[edit]
In the early morning of 20 November 1979, the imam of the Grand Mosque, Sheikh Mohammed al-Subayil, was preparing to lead prayers for the 50,000 worshippers who had gathered for prayer. At around 5:00 am he was interrupted by insurgents who produced weapons from under their robes, chained the gates shut and killed two policemen who were armed with only wooden clubs for disciplining unruly pilgrims.[26] The number of insurgents has been given as "at least 500"[10] or "four to five hundred", and included several women and children who had joined al-Otaybi's movement.[25]
At the time the Grand Mosque was being renovated by the Saudi Binladin Group.[27] An employee of the organization was able to report the seizure to the outside world before the insurgents cut the telephone lines.
The insurgents released most of the hostages and locked the remainder in the sanctuary. They took defensive positions in the upper levels of the mosque, and sniper positions in the minarets, from which they commanded the grounds. No one outside the mosque knew how many hostages remained, how many militants were in the mosque and what sort of preparations they had made.
At the time of the event, Crown Prince Fahd was in Tunisia for a meeting of the Arab League Summit. The commander of the National Guard, Prince Abdullah, was also abroad for an official visit to Morocco. Therefore, King Khalid assigned the responsibility to two members of the Sudairi Seven – Prince Sultan, then Minister of Defence, and Prince Nayef, then Minister of Interior, to deal with the incident.[28]