On 25th October, at 11:50 pm London time, reports of Israel's retaliatory strike against Iran began circulating on social media. Nearly three hours earlier, at 9:05 pm, a new Telegram channel called the “Islamic Resistance in Bilad Alharamin” was created. By 9:29 pm, the group posted its initial statement, claiming responsibility for a drone attack launched from Saudi Arabia against Israel—a historic first. At 10:09 pm, the group shared a video purportedly showing a drone being launched in daylight towards an unspecified target in Israel.
However, news of this alleged attack from Saudi Arabia did not gain traction until the following morning. This delay suggests that Israel’s attack on Iran may have postponed the group’s attempts to spread its statement. The following observations highlight some notable aspects of the group’s suspicious launch activities.
Naming Conventions: The group’s name omits "Saudi Arabia" in favour of “Bilad Alharamin” (the Land of the Two Holy Mosques), signaling a refusal to acknowledge the Saudi state’s legitimacy, instead referring to the broader Arabian Peninsula. This echoes rhetoric used by Al-Qaeda, which similarly dismisses the formal name of Saudi Arabia, identifying it as part of the Arabian Peninsula.