Where ISIS top commanders came from: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has long attempted to seed and nurture hard-line groups throughout both the Middle East and central Asia.

The Kingdom has a thorough history of backing Sunni jihadism, a pathology that has reemerged with full force during the Syrian conflict. The Saudis have sent weapons and resources directly to hardline factions hostile to the Assad government, including forces affiliated with al-Nusra and other groups that al-Shishani once fought besides.

This transfer of arms has inevitably led to the diffusion of weapons amongst jihadi factions who might otherwise lack armaments of that caliber, providing logistical support to the array of militias that draw Islamist fighters.

All evidence suggests that the Saudi backing of local extremist factions allowed these groups to gain a stronger ideological and networking foothold than they otherwise would.

Though there’s no open indication ISIS receives direct backing from the Saudis, there’s no doubt the group has been a beneficiary of the kingdom’s machinations.

The following accidents show a number of the ISIS leaders have had Saudi origin while Saudi Arabia claims to fight ISIS:

March 2016: Top Saudi ISIS commander killed in Syria’s Palmyra suburbs

The ISIS terrorist group lost one of its top Saudi commanders during clashes in Eastern suburb Palmyra (Tadmur) city in Homs province, Syria.

The senior ISIS militant, Sultan bin Abdul Rahman, was a Saudi national who joined the terrorist group in 2014.

Rahman was killed when the Syrian army forces as a part of their large-scale operation to take back the city of Tadmur raided ISIS fortifications in the Eastern areas just outside the city.

January 2017: Saudi ISIS commander in charge of executing women killed by unknown gunmen in Mosul

Security sources in Nineveh province disclosed that unidentified assailants gunned down a senior Saudi commander of the ISIS terrorist group who was in charge of executing Iraqi women in the city of Mosul.

The unknown gunmen shot at Abu Abdel Rahman, ISIS’s senior commander, in al-Askari region in the center of Mosul city, and he was killed right on the spot.

March 2017: US Air Force kills high-ranking Saudi ISIS commanders

The US Air Force claimed it had killed seven ‘high-ranking ISIS commanders’ due to an airstrike on Al-Najjar Mosque in the northwestern part of the Mosul:

Abu Khalid (Saudi national).
– Sabah al-‘Anzhi (Saudi national).
– Abu ‘Azzam (Saudi national).
– Abu Hijab (Saudi national).
– Abu Siyah (Jordanian national).
– Abu Taybah (Jordanian national).
– Abu Abdul-Rahman Al-Ansari (Saudi national, commander of Jund al-Khalifa, ISIS’ elite assault troops).

June 2017: Saudi commander of ISIS killed during Iran’s missiles attack

Several high-ranking ISIS terrorist group commanders were among hundreds of Takfiris killed when Iran’s missiles hit their headquarters in Syria’s Deir Ezzor.

According to the sources, Sa’ad al-Husseini, nom de guerre Abu Sa’ad, a senior Saudi commander of ISIS was killed in the airstrikes. Additionally, Six Libyan ISIS commanders were killed in the attack

July 2017: ISIS commander killed as tried to flee from Mosul

ISIS commander (Saudi citizen) Abu Hafsa killed when he tried to flee from #Mosul Old city to east Mosul by crossing the Tigris river.

#ISIS commander (Saudi citizen) Abu Hafsa killed when he tried to flee from #Mosul Old city to east Mosul by crossing the Tigris river. pic.twitter.com/GwsH9wcP3V

— Iraqi Day ?? (@iraqi_day) July 8, 2021

napalminthemorning.com contributed to this report

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