Al Qaeda is up to something new.
Analysts and investigators suggested that the targeting of the compound, home to well-off Arab professionals who worked as executives in foreign-owned companies, represented a potential widening of the militants’ war on Western interests in Saudi Arabia — and on the ruling Saudi royal family.
Well, not really new.
Although the targeting of fellow Muslims may seem like something new for Al Qaeda, it is well known in fundamentalist circles that Islamic “traitors”–those who side with the West–are hated just as much as, if not more than, Westerners themselves.
Bin Laden is a sworn enemy of the Saudi royal family, saying it has betrayed Islam by allowing foreign troops in the country that is home to the most sacred Muslim sites.
The two holy cities of Mecca and Medina both exist within Saudi Arabia, and many believe it to be the holiest of Muslim nations. It should then come as no surprise that Saudi elite should be targeted as well, and also why the Saudi elite give in to Islamists frequently.