2015-01-23 17:28
Beirut — Islamic militants and their supporters celebrated the
death of Saudi King Abdullah on social media Friday, many of them
describing him as a "servant" of the Americans who conspired with the
West to kill Muslims.
Abdullah, who died at the age of 90, began
battling al-Qaida militants around a decade ago when extremists launched
a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy.
Backed by the kingdom's top ally, the United States, Saudi officials
responded with a massive crackdown and has imprisoned suspected
militants and sentenced others to death.
"The thief of the two
holy mosques has died," wrote a militant supporter on Twitter. "He lived
and died as a servant to America," posted another.
Many Islamic
extremists consider the Saudi royal family to be corrupt and unfit to
rule. The Islamic State group, an al-Qaida breakaway group that
currently holds a third of Iraq and Syria, often cites Islam's holiest
city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, as one of its targets.
Saudi Arabia is also part of a U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in airstrikes.
A
jihadi supporter who goes by the name of Abu Azzam al-Najdi criticized
the late king saying: "He sent his warplanes to kill Muslims in (Syria).
He imprisoned Muslim men and women and wherever there was a war against
jihadis, he was the first."
Loyalists of al-Qaida and the Islamic
State group alike organized their comments under hashtags, some that
translate from Arabic into "Death of a Tyrant."
Another jihadi
supporter who goes by the name of Omar wrote in English: "The dog that
was occupying (the land of the two holy shrines) has finally kicked the
bucket, no Bush or Obama to save you from Allah."
One user posted a
photo illustration of King Abdullah wearing an orange uniform as a
masked man stood behind him carrying a knife to behead him.
"We
don't want him to die. We want to slaughter him this way," the post
said, referring to Saudi Arabia's tradition of beheading criminals.
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