A flurry of bombings last week in Saudi Arabia have raised fear of a growing ISIS presence there, though officials were quick to assure that the attackers were not very well trained, and killed a lot fewer people than they probably could have if they’d been more savvy.
Saudi officials now say they are convinced the attacks were coordinated, and traces of nitroglycerin at the sites have them believing that the explosives used were stolen from the military, and likely all from the same source.
At the same time, one security expert noted that of the five bombers, four of them “killed themselves for nothing,” just blowing themselves up near a Shi’ite mosque and a US consulate and not accomplishing anything. The fifth bomber managed to kill four police in Medina.
CIA officials say they’re convinced that ISIS was behind the strikes, and insisted that they pose a “very serious threat” to the Saudi Kingdom. Saudi officials likely seeking to avoid making this a big issue, are downplaying that, and presenting the attackers as poor dupes without the training to do much real damage.