Grand Mosque Seizure The Grand Mosque Seizure on 20 November 1979 , was a terrorist attack and takeover of the Al - Masjid al - Haram in Makkah , Saudi Arabia , the holiest place in Islam by Islamist dissidents . The insurgents declared that the Mahdi , or redeemer of Islam , had arrived in the form of one of the insurgent leaders , Mohammed Abdullah al - Qahtani , and called on Muslims to obey him . The seizure shocked the Islamic world as hundreds of pilgrims present for the annual hajj were taken hostage , and hundreds of militants , security forces and hostages caught in crossfire were killed in the ensuing battles for control of the site . The siege ended two weeks after the takeover began with militants and the mosque was cleared . Following the attack , the Saudi state implemented stricter enforcement of Islamic code . Background . The seizure was led by Juhayman al - Otaybi , who belonged to a powerful family of Najd . He declared his brother - in - law Mohammed Abdullah al - Qahtani to be the Mahdi , or redeemer . His followers took that the fact that Al - Qahtani ' s name and his father ' s name are identical to Muhammad ' s name and that of his father , and the saying ( " His and his father ' s names were the same as Muhammad ' s and his father ' s , and he had come to Mecca from the north " ) to justify their belief . Furthermore , the date of the attack , 20 November 1979 , was the first day of the year 1400 according to the Islamic calendar , which was stated by another hadith as the day that the Mahdi would reveal himself . Juhayman al - Otaybi was from " one of the foremost families of Najd . His grandfather had ridden with Ibn Saud in the early decades of the century . " He was a preacher , a former corporal in the Saudi National Guard , and a former student of Sheikh Abdel Aziz al Baaz , who went on to become the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia . Juhaiman had turned against al Baz , " and began advocating a return to the original ways of Islam , among other things ; a repudiation of the West ; an end of education of women ; abolition of television and expulsion of non - Muslims . " He proclaimed that " the ruling Al Saud dynasty had lost its legitimacy because it was corrupt , ostentatious and had destroyed Saudi culture by an aggressive policy of Westernization . " al - Otaybi and Qahtani had met while being imprisoned together for sedition , when al - Otaybi claimed to have a vision sent by God telling him that Qahtani was the Mahdi . Their declared goal was to institute a theocracy in preparation for the imminent apocalypse . Many of their followers were drawn from theology students at the Islamic University in Medina . Other followers came from Egypt , Yemen , Kuwait , and Iraq , and also included some Sudanese black African Muslims . The followers preached their radical message in different mosques in Saudi Arabia without being arrested . The government was reluctant to confront religious extremists . Members of the ulema cross - examined Otaibi and Qahtani for heresy , but they were subsequently released as being traditionalists harkening back to the Ikhwan , like al - Otaybi ' s grandfather , and not a threat . Because of donations from wealthy followers , the group was well - armed and trained . Some members , like al - Otaybi , were former military officials of the National Guard . Some National Guard troops sympathetic to the insurgents smuggled weapons , ammunition , gas masks , and provisions into the mosque compound over a period of weeks before the new year . Automatic weapons were stolen from National Guard armories , and the supplies were hidden in the hundreds of tiny underground rooms under the mosque that were used as hermitages . Seizure . In the early morning of 20 November 1979 , the imam of the Grand Mosque , Sheikh Mohammed al - Subayil , was preparing to lead the prayers for the fifty thousand worshipers who had gathered for prayer . Around 5 : 00 am , he was interrupted by insurgents who procured weapons from under their robes , chained the gates shut and killed two policemen who were armed with only wooden clubs for disciplining unruly pilgrims . The number of insurgents has been given as " at least 500 " and " four to five hundred " , which included several women and children who had joined al - Otaybi ' s movement . At the time , the Grand Mosque was being renovated . An employee of the organization was able to report the seizure to outside before the insurgents cut the telephone lines . The insurgents released most of the hostages and locked the remainder in the sanctuary . They took defensive positions in the upper levels of the mosque , and sniper positions in the minarets , from which they commanded the grounds . No one outside the mosque knew how many hostages remained , how many militants were in the mosque and what sort of preparations they had made . At the time of the event , Crown Prince Fahd was in Tunisia for a meeting of the Arab Summit and then commander of National Guard Prince Abdullah was in Morocco for an official visit . Therefore , King Khalid assigned the responsibility to Prince Sultan , then Minister of Defense and Prince Nayef , then Minister of Interior , to deal with the incident . Siege . Soon after the rebel seizure , about a hundred security officers of the Ministry of Interior attempted to retake the mosque , and were decisively turned back with heavy casualties . The survivors were quickly joined by units of the Saudi Arabian Army and Saudi Arabian National Guard . By the evening , the entire city of Mecca had been evacuated . Prince Sultan appointed Turki bin Faisal Al Saud , then head of the Al Mukhabaraat Al ' Aammah ( Saudi Intelligence ) , to take over the forward command post several hundred metres from the mosque , where Prince Turki would remain for the next several weeks . However , the first order of business was to seek the approval of the ulema , which was led by Abdul Aziz bin Baz . Islam forbids any violence within the Grand Mosque , to the extent that plants cannot be uprooted without explicit religious sanction . Ibn Baaz found himself in a delicate situation , especially as he had previously taught al - Otaybi in Medina . Regardless , the ulema issued a fatwa allowing deadly force to be used in retaking the mosque . With religious approval granted , Saudi forces launched frontal assaults on three of the main gates . The assaulting force was repulsed , and never even got close to breaking through the insurgents ' defences . Snipers continued to pick off soldiers who showed themselves . The mosque ' s public address system was used to broadcast the insurgents ' message throughout the streets of Mecca . An elite unit called " Rahbar " of the SSG headed by Col Tariq Mahmood a distiguished SSG Commander who later was killed as ONE STAR General . One more source Unit leader was captain Muhammad Umair Kharoti of Pakistan Army . He mobilized the SSG commandos . The SSG commandos were rushed to Mecca from Pakistan on Saudi Government ' s request . In the middle of the day , Saudi troops abseiled from helicopters directly into the central courtyard of the mosque . The Saudi soldiers were picked off by insurgents holding superior positions . After failure of this exercise , Pakistani SSG Commandos split / showered water all over the Grand Masjid floors even in minarets . This situation was very surprising for the insurgents who did not know what was going to happen next . On having water all over the floors of the Grand Masjid , Pak Army Commandos released electric current in the water and insurgents suspended their activities and start changing their positions to save themselves from the electric shocks . During this Pak Army Commandos were dropped by helicopters into the Grand Masjid in different locations and they easily captured many of the insurgents alive . The insurgents aired their demands from the mosque ' s loudspeakers , calling for the cutoff of oil exports to the United States and the expulsion of all foreign civilian and military experts from the Arabian Peninsula . On 25 November , the Arab Socialist Action Party – Arabian Peninsula issued a statement from Beirut alleging to clarify the demands of the insurgents . The party , however , denied any involvement of its own in the seizure . Officially , the Saudi government took the position of not aggressively taking the mosque , but rather to starve the militants . Nevertheless , several unsuccessful assaults were undertaken , at least one of them through the underground tunnels in and around the mosque . By 27 November , most of the mosque had been retaken by the Saudi National Guard and the Army , though they suffered heavy casualties in the assault . In the catacombs under the mosque , however , several militants continued to resist and tear gas was used to force them out . Several of the top militants escaped the siege and days later sporadic fighting erupted in other parts of the city as authorities tried to capture them . The battle had lasted for more than two weeks , and had officially left " 255 pilgrims , troops and fanatics " killed and " another 560 injured . . . although diplomats suggested the toll was higher . " Military casualties were 127 dead and 451 injured . Aftermath . In Iran , Ayatollah Khomeini told radio listeners , " It is not beyond guessing that this is the work of criminal American imperialism and international Zionism . " Anti - American demonstrations followed in the Philippines , Turkey , Bangladesh , eastern Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan . Anger fueled by these rumours peaked within hours in Islamabad , Pakistan , and on 21 November 1979 , the day following the takeover , the U . S . embassy in that city was overrun by a mob , who then burned the embassy to the ground . A week later , this anger swept to the streets of Tripoli , Libya , where a mob attacked and burned the U . S . embassy there on 2 December 1979 . Sandra Mackey , author of " The Saudis : Inside the Desert Kingdom " , said that " [ i ] n choosing the Grand Mosque as the point of attack , the rebels seized the symbol of the theocracy presided over by the House of Saud . But by failing the attack , the rebels sealed their own fate and gave the al - Sauds carte blanche to carry out public executions for religious transgressions that were in reality crimes of politics . " The rebels ' leader , Juhayman , was captured , and he and 67 of his fellow rebels – " all the surviving males " – were tried secretly , convicted and publicly beheaded in the squares of four Saudi cities . In fact , 63 rebels were executed on 9 January 1980 in eight Saudi cities . The executions were decreed by King Khalid after the edict issued by ulemas . The cities and towns included Buraidah , Dammam , Mecca , Medina , Riyadh , Abha , Ha ' il and Tabuk . Mackey said that the eight cities and towns " were carefully chosen not only to give maximum exposure but , one suspects , to reach other potential nests of discontent . "