How IS Seeks Sectarian War in Saudi Arabia

BBC AMERICA: Saudi Arabia has now suffered three deliberate attacks by supporters of Islamic State (IS) on the restive Shia Muslim minority living in the country's oil-rich Eastern Province.

The first, in November 2014, was a gun attack. And, in May 2015, there have been two devastating suicide bomb blasts targeting worshippers at Friday prayers.

The last two attacks used RDX, a powerful military explosive, and have been claimed by IS's self-styled Najd Province, named after Saudi Arabia's staunchly conservative Sunni heartland, the desert plateau in the middle of the country.

So what is IS trying to achieve and will it succeed?

These attacks are a watershed for Saudi Arabia.

How it reacts now and in the coming months will determine whether the largest and most important Arab state can stave off a wider sectarian conflict between the country's majority Sunni and minority Shia Muslim populations, something that would be disastrous for both communities.

The attacks follow decades of state and religious discrimination against the Shia minority, who constitute about 10% of the population. » | Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent | Thursday, June 04, 2015

Sunni vs. Shia - Differences and Conflict Explained

Sunni and Shia Muslims have enormous conflicts, but the differences between them are frequently misunderstood. The split in Islam after the death of Muhammad is examined, the influence of Ayatollahs, and the political map that is broken down along Shia/Sunni lines are all looked at in this explanation of the wedge in the Muslim world, with Elliot Hill for the Lip News.

Islamic State Executes Scores of Fellow Sunni Muslims

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Islamic State forces have carried out another mass killing of civilians in western Iraq, officials said Saturday – the systematic executions of at least 50 fellow Sunni Muslim men and women belonging to a tribe that has defied the extremist militants.

Amid a months-long onslaught by the Islamic State, Iraq is growing ever more violent. The United Nations mission in Baghdad reported Saturday that at least 1,273 Iraqis had been killed in October, about two-thirds of them civilians.

n the latest grisly episode, members of the Albu Nimr tribe were lined up by the militants and shot dead late Friday in the village of Ras al-Maaa, in Anbar province, according to Naim Al-Kaood, an Albu Nimr tribal leader. He spoke to the Iraqi broadcaster Al-Sumariyah.

Social media websites were flooded with pictures of the dead, their blood seeping out onto the pavement from apparent close-range shots to the head. » | Nabih Bulos, Laura King | Reporting from Amman, Jordan | Saturday, November 01, 2014