Al-Qaeda In 2003, the Saudi capital was targeted with simultaneous suicide bombings at three residential compounds. These bombings killed more than 30 persons, including Saudis, Lebanese, Americans, British and Australians. Other attacks followed, seeking to destabilize the Kingdom and shake the confidence of expatriates to cause them to leave. It did not succeed. Faris Al-Zahrani, a top Al-Qaeda strategist whose death sentence was recently carried out, along with other convicted terrorists, masterminded a 2004 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, killing four security guards and five staff members. ISIS The murderers of ISIS have publicly proclaimed the taking of the Saudi State as one of their goals. Throughout 2015, ISIS terrorists struck four mosques in Dammam, Qatif, Abha and Najran, killing 38 and wounding 148. In August 2015, Saudi authorities arrested 421 suspects from four different terror cells in connection with these crimes. Another 15 suspects were arrested while planning suicide operation against the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh using a truck loaded with explosives. ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia have been caught trying to free terrorists from prison, recruit young people to their cause, and spread ISIS propaganda. Iran Iran has used terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy since the 1979 Revolution. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long been a target of terrorism perpetrated by Iranian proxies. In 1987, the Iranian sponsored Hezbollah al-Hejaz set fire to an oil facility in Ras Tannurah in eastern of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That same year, Saudi authorities foiled a plot by Iranian pilgrims to smuggle explosives into the Kingdom. In 1988, Hezbollah al-Hejaz attacked a petrochemical company facility in Jubail. Most despicable was Iran’s involvement in the 1996 Khobar bombings, which resulted in the deaths of 120 people, including 19 Americans. --More 12:03 LOCAL TIME 09:03 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w