Al-Madinah IT is evident that Daesh and other terrorist organizations have their origins in Al-Qaeda. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the current leader of Al-Qaeda, was earlier a leader of Islamic Jihad. This extremist outfit merged with Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda in 1998 while Osama was hiding in Afghanistan. After the merger of the two terror outfits, a new front called "World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders" was formed. The front was founded with the concept of fighting the close and distant enemy, and its priority was to fight the close enemy. In the beginning, the close enemy was the Soviet puppet government in Afghanistan, and then the governments of some Arab and Islamic countries. Later, their target was the distant enemy, represented by the United States. However, some of these terror outfits stuck to their earlier strategy of fighting the close enemy, in addition to the distant enemy. As part of the strategy of fighting the close enemy, Al-Qaeda was striving to lure maximum number of youths into their fold. It is unfortunate that several young men, most of them in their early age, have joined the terror outfit. These youths have been instigated by their "mentors" to engage in terror acts including killing and destruction, either by targeting civilians at public places or killing security personnel. The latest of these acts of cowardice was against the young Saudi security man Madous Al-Anzi, who was killed by his terrorist cousin, in Riyadh. The video footage of the horrific murder saddened all those who had watched it. We have witnessed several terror attacks over the past few years and the victims were innocent people. They were brutally killed by the terrorists who belonged to their own nationality. The Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of two foreigners who had turned their house into a booby-trapped hideout for making explosives in Riyadh city. The house was virtually turned into an integrated plant for manufacturing bombs and vests and belts that can be detonated. The plant was run by a foreigner, assisted by a woman from another country to make explosives to carry out terror attacks. The house was suspected of using as a refuge for suicide bombers planning attacks. This obviously shows the fact that Daesh and other terror outfits have taken the battle once again to the home ground, and for this, they are engaged in making explosives locally. They are supposed to have plans to carry out attacks with an ulterior design of undermining the Kingdom's security. The present and coming phase entails an all-out battle against the terror outfits. For this, there should be concerted efforts on the part of all of us by joining hands with the security forces. The security of the nation is not the responsibility of the security forces alone but the responsibility of every one of us. Hence, we have to be vigilant against any suspicious acts that are noticed around us and there won't be any hesitation to inform the concerned authorities about this, even if the offender is anyone closer to us or related to us. We should realize the fact that all of us are targeted by these deviant groups and anyone of us could be the victim of such cowardly attacks.
