Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — Syria is said to have planned a mass-casualty attack in
Saudi Arabia in 2012.

A Syrian military defector asserted that the regime of President Bashar
Assad ordered a major attack on the Saudi city of Mecca during the annual
Muslim pilgrimage in October 2012.

The defector said the operation was assigned to a cell of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in the Saudi port city of Jedda.

“I was vacationing in Thailand with my family when I received a phone
call from the deputy consul telling me that I was to carry out an operation in the sacred city of Mecca, but without specifying the location,” the defector, identified as Imad Al Haraki, said. “I was told that I would return home to Syria following the bombing and lead a luxurious life.”

Al Haraki, who worked for the Syrian consulate in Jedda, provided
details of the purported plot to the Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat. Al Haraki said Syrian deputy consul general Shawki Shamat received orders that the bombing was to take place during the gathering of at least three million pilgrims on Mount Arafat on Oct. 25.

Two days before the attack, Al Haraki said, he alerted Saudi Arabia of
the Syrian plot. On Oct. 25, the Gulf Cooperation Council kingdom
ordered the expulsion of three diplomats in the Syrian consulate. Riyad
confirmed the expulsions, but did not elaborate.

In an interview with Al Hayat on Jan. 26, Al Haraki said the Assad
regime learned that he had leaked details of the plot to Saudi authorities.
He said he requested and received asylum from Saudi Arabia.

Al Haraki, sentenced to death by a Syrian court, said he also reported
on a Hizbullah cell in Jedda. The cell was said to contain more than 20 people who coordinated with the Syrian
consulate in the city.

  Bahsar Assad, Defector: Syria planned 2012 terror attack during pilgrimage to Mecca, Imad Al Haraki, Muslim pilgrimage, three million pilgrims