Saudi ‘Mother of Death’ Recruited Her Sons to Fight for the Islamic State

Saudi Arabia’s recent crackdown on terrorist conspirators brought 17 arrests, one of whom was Khulood al-Rukaibi, profiled by Al-Arabiya as a “mother of death” who recruited her sons to fight for the Islamic State.

Rukaibi, known by ISIS as “Umm Mohammed,” is in her late forties with a primary level education. She married a man who was allegedly weak in being “the man of the house”. He fathered her six children – four boys and two girls.

According to AlArabiya.net’s investigation, social media sources reported that one of Khulood’s sons is already fighting in Syria. Two of her other sons – Hamad and Nassar – were recruited to carry out attacks inside Saudi Arabia.

According to investigations carried out by the Saudi Ministry of Interior, she was the brain and the power behind the ISIS cell that were planning to carry out attacks in Saudi Arabia but were foiled during a September 18 raid by the authorities.

Those three cells were planning four attacks and had reached advanced stages of preparation. The aim was to target citizens, religious scholars, security forces and military, security and economic facilities in different areas as well as religious sites in al-Ahsa and security headquarters linked to the defense and interior ministries.

CNN reports that Saudi security forces seized “a large number of sticky bombs, suicide vests, automatic rifles, firearms silencers, ammunition and 600,000 Saudi Riyals (about $160,000 USD),” in addition to the 17 terrorism arrests.

“At least one of the cells were reportedly believed to be part of the group that blew up the Imam al-Rida Mosque in al-Ahsa back in January. That same terror cell was also linked to an attack on a military vehicle in the Saudi capital city Riyadh in February,” adds International Business Times.

IBT notes that three other ISIS-linked terrorist plots were thwarted in nearby Kuwait about three months ago.