Saudi Arabia Attacks.

Yesterday (4/7/16) Saudi Arabia was struck by not one but three extremely minor suicide bombings.

However before I explain that I first have to go off in a different direction to put them in their proper context.

As I've explained Europe is currently in the grips of the Euro 2016 football which is being held in France. The threat of radical Islamist terrorism to that tournament is considered very high. That is because of the November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) Paris Massacres. 

Although on that night multiple targets were struck and 130 people murdered the attacks began with twin (failed) suicide bomb attacks on the Stade de France football stadium during a friendly match between France and Germany.

The big area of concern for Euro 2016 are the Fanzones. These large vast public areas in major cities where members of the public gather together in vast numbers to watch the matches live on giant TV screens.

 During Saturday's (2/7/16) match between Germany and Italy there was a serious incident at the Fanzone by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Here someone set off a firework. The panic this small explosion caused triggered a stampede of several thousand people as they all rushed to escape what they thought was a terrorist attack.

This type of stampede is extremely serious. 

Just last September (24/9/15) an estimated 2,110 people were trampled to death in a stampede in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. In 2010 (24/7/10) 20 people were killed at a stampede during the "Love Parade" music festival in Berlin, Germany. The most serious tragedy to strike European football was the 1985 (29/5/85) Heysel Stadium disaster in which 39 were trampled to death during a stampede at the UEFA Cup Final.

In order to prevent a repeat of Saturday's events the organisers will have to increase their searches of those entering the Fanzones in order to ensure that fireworks and similar contraband do not make their way inside the cordon. This will obviously mean longer queues and less fun for those attending.

I think that event organisers will also have to look at the way that layout of the Fanzones is designed. Simply by putting crash barriers in strategic positions you can break up these stampedes before they start or at least limit them to small groups rather than having them ripple out through the entire crowd. 

The problem though is that if you put the barriers in the wrong places they can make the situation much worse. In a full panic people will crush each other into the barriers killing them. This is similar to what happened during the 1989 (15/4/89) Hillsborough disaster.

Therefore in order to give specific advice on how to alter the design of the Fanzones I will first need to know the exact layout of each Fanzone and run various computer simulations of any design changes. With only four matches left in the tournament and no deaths or serious injuries reported from Saturday it might just be safer to leave it at an enhanced search regime.

Provided no-one else is stupid enough to let off a firework in a Fanzone.

There was another security incident prior to Sunday's (3/7/16) between France and Iceland which was played at the Stade de France. Here an unattended vehicle was found parked inside the security cordon close to the stadium. Although it did cause some alarm the vehicle was found not to contain any explosives after it had been destroyed in a controlled explosion and the match went ahead as planned.

France went on to beat Iceland setting up a semi-final tie against Germany. This will be the first time that France & Germany have played each other since the Paris Massacres. This match will be played at Stade Velodrome in Marseille which due to Marseille's reputation probably increases the threat.

There are several possibilities of what Sunday's incident was about.

Firstly it could just simply be a mistake. 

When I was working in football due to a groundshare there was a match played at the ground every Saturday. These matches were widely publicised in both national and local TV, newspapers and radio. 

However invariably there was always one local resident who would be completely oblivious to the fact there was a football match going on and park their car somewhere it shouldn't be parked. In those days we simply had the cars towed away. However we did often talk about just blowing them up to punish the owner for making our lives so much more difficult.

The controlled explosion at Stade de France sounded a lot like the firework going off at the near-by Eiffel Tower Fanzone. Therefore it is possible that the French staged the whole thing to promote discussion about events of the previous night. After all if there had been deaths or serious injuries at the Fanzone France would currently be getting slammed for all sides. The rest of the tournament would also likely be cancelled.

Similarly it is possible that France staged the controlled explosion as a reminder to - particularly the Americans - of the security challenges they are being forced to deal with due to Barack Obama's - at best incompetent - policies.

The third explanation though is more sinister. It is possible that a third party deliberately parked the car inside the security cordon to increase the pressure on France by showing that they had the capability to bomb the stadium if they so wished.

This possibility gained credence due to events in Saudi Arabia in the very early hours of the following day. 

Here a suicide bomber was stopped at a security checkpoint close to the US Consulate building in Jeddah where he blew himself up. If you look on a map the location of where the Jeddah suicide bomber blew up his car is remarkably similar to the location of where the car was parked close to the Stade de France.

Apart from the connection to Euro 2016 the message of the Jeddah bombing to the US was quite clear; If the US doesn't give the Saudis what they've been demanding in the Orlando and Dhaka terror attacks Saudi Arabia will start bombing US government buildings across the world. 

Following on from the Dhaka, Bangladesh (nee; East Pakistan) and picking up the themes of the Orlando attack the Jeddah attacker has been identified as a Pakistani national by the name of Abdullah Qlazar Khan. This A.Q Khan is not to be confused with Abdul Qadeer Khan who helped build Pakistan's nuclear weapons program before going rogue and selling nuclear weapons technology to the highest bidder. 

That seemed to be a clear threat from Saudi Arabia to the US that it will obtain and then use nuclear weapons against US interests unless its demands are met. 

Saudi Arabia's second bombing of the day occurred in the eastern city of Qatif. Unlike the majority of Saudi Arabia the Qatif region is dominated by Shia rather than Sunni Muslims and this attack targeted a Shia Mosque. Fortunately none but the attacker were killed. 

This seemed intended to promote discussion about Saudi Arabia's use of radical Islamist terror groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associates to wipe all Shia Muslims from the face of the Earth.

Saudi Arabia's third bombing of the day occurred in the Holy City of Medina. It occurred at a security building at what is known as the Prophet's Mosque/tomb where the Prophet Muhammad is buried. This is the second most holy site in Islam behind Mecca itself.

This was intended as a threat to me personally. It was essentially Saudi Arabia saying to the World that unless their demand that my opposition to ISIL is stopped they're going to come and blow my house up. I'd like to say that's the first time that I've been threatened like that but sadly it really isn't.

It also seems to have been a crude attempt to limit my influence amongst Muslim readers. After all I understand just how offensive it is to compare myself to the Prophet. Even if I am just quoting someone else.

As for why we're seeing this uptick in Saudi aggression now it would be nice to pretend that it's because it is the end of the Holy month of Ramadan. Sadly though it's because the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is holding its July meeting in Germany.

Clearly the Paris Agreement is going to be so excellent at combating climate change the Saudis are concerned everybody might suddenly get cold feet and try and replace it.

16:55 on 5/7/16 (UK date).