Siege of Makkah Part 9

Here I am presenting an episode of blogs written by a very dear friend of mine whom I will disclose later for various reasons which will become apparent as time progresses. This is a ten part article and will present each part as interest in it by the readers suggest so.Please note that this series of articles is neither to defame a religion, a country or a sect. It is merely a window into an already published work. The author of this article is a Canadian Muslim who has himself spent a decade living in Saudi Arabia as well. So whatever you read, first of all dont judge a book by its cover. Here is part 9:

The main floor of the Masjid was secured, but most of the militants were still alive and armed in the basement, along with Juhayman and thousands of hostages. The food brought in by the militants was quickly running out and Juhayman limited the ration to a couple dates a day and zam-zam water. The blessed water of zam-zam was also applied as the cure-all medicine for any wounds or ailments.

Saudis were near the end of their wits in trying to get to the basement. They did not even have the blueprint to the Masjid's floor plans and the Bin Laden company was moving its offices and took its time unpacking. Once the floor plans were obtained, it was decided to use some of the openings to the basement to drop in high concentrations of tear gas--toxic enough to do serious damage to the victims. Famously, Saudi Arabia sent a telegram to the White House, asking for enough tear gas that the U.S. ended up sending every last bit of it to Makkah.

Armed with tear gas, the Saudis sent in a team wearing gas masks to get the militants out of the basement. The logistics of this, however, were not fully thought out.

The militants had a few advantages. They were in the basement and the gas tends to move upwards--such that lying down on the floor would have been sufficient to not get affected. The basement also had relatively few openings. The militants quickly covered them with zam-zam powered wet towels and wrapped their own head covers on their faces.

The Saudi army had a huge disadvantage. They all had big beards. The tear gas couldn't penetrate the basement and quickly rose up to the main floor and seeped through their beards into their gas masks. As the victims tore of their gas masks to vomit, the full force of the tear gas knocked them out. It is said that none of the men who went into the Masjid to throw in tear gas came back on their own. The wind resulted in the gas moving quickly to the neighbouring hotels where many pilgrims were still living. When all was done, the tear gas was responsible for sending close to 200 pilgrims to the hospital, while none of the militants are believe to the affected by it at all.

Saudis were quickly losing hope in their own ability to bring this conflict to an end. The public uprising of Shi'as in Qatif and the Eastern province in general was also diverting their attention and limited resources. (The Qatif uprising left over 400 Shi'as dead--another topic in Saudi history that is rarely discussed.) The Saudis knew they needed help but didn't know where to turn to.

Jordan was the first to offer help. King Khalid, however, refused. The house of Saud had taken away Hijaz from the grandfather of King Hussein of Jordan and turning to them for help now would have undermined their moral claim to the two holy sites. There were also pressures on the house of Saud to give up the custodianship of the two sacred mosques and to put them under a trust overseen by a body representing all Muslim countries--pressures that intensified during this conflict. Bringing in help from another Muslim country would have only given strength to the opponents of the house of Saud. As such, both Morocco and Pakistan were turned down when they offered help. Instead, the Saudis went to the French and requested the help of their elite unit-- Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale.

The mandate of the French was not to go in and rescue the Masjid. That was to be left as the course of last resort. Their mandate was to train the Saudi army to go in and do the job themselves. The French sent three members of the elite unit under the command of Captain Paul Barril. Though the French were not supposed to enter Makkah and were told to operate out of Taif, Captain Paul Barril later claimed that he personally entered the Masjid after a "summary conversion" to Islam, a claim that the Saudis deny. Captain Paul Barril also provided insights into the Saudi army's incompetence and complete lack of tactics.

With the training of the French GIGNs, the Saudi army planned a massive operation, attacking the basement from every possible entrance. Tear gas was used once again, but much more carefully this time, and hence much more effectively. The militants lasted a mere few hours under this well planned attack and about 120 of them surrendered, including Juhayman.

TO BE CONTINUED