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Al Qaeda Attacks Saudi

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  • Al Qaeda Attacks Saudi

    The anti-terror chief who is also a Saudi Prince had a narrow escape from an al Qaeda suicide bomber.

    Saudi anti-terror chief escapes Qaeda suicide bomb
    8 hours ago [AFP] RIYADH — Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a Saudi royal family member who heads the kingdom's anti-terror fight, escaped little harmed from a suicide bomb attack in Jeddah, official news agency SPA said on Friday.

    The deputy interior minister suffered only superficial injuries after the suicide bomber got close to him and detonated his explosives on Thursday evening, the agency said quoting a royal court statement.

    The Saudi wing of Al-Qaeda was swift in claiming responsibility.

    In a statement posted on an Islamist website late on Thursday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said it was behind the bomb, according to US-based monitoring group, SITE Intelligence. ....

    The royal court said the bomber was a wanted terrorist who had approached the prince under the pretext he wanted to give himself up. He detonated his device while he was undergoing security checks, it added. ....

    Prince Mohammed is the son of long time Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, who has been in office since 1975. He serves as the minister's assistant for security affairs.

    This was the first high-profile Al-Qaeda attack against the government since militants rammed a car bomb into the fortified interior ministry in Riyadh in 2004.

    It was also the first strike on a member of the royal family since Al-Qaeda launched a wave of attacks in the kingdom in 2003, targeting Western establishments and oil facilities and leaving more that 150 Saudis and foreigners dead. ....

  • #2
    They are normally very quick to round up suspects and 'extract' confessions.


    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...l/6590893.html
    Last edited by dave lukins; 28 Aug 09,, 15:55.

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    • #3
      This is beyond Saudi control.

      Bomber who attacked Saudi prince came from Yemen
      6 hrs ago [AP] SAN'A, Yemen — The suicide bomber who lightly wounded Saudi Arabia's assistant interior minister set out from an area of neighboring Yemen known to be an al-Qaida sanctuary, Yemen's foreign minister said Saturday.

      The revelation that a militant was able to cross into Saudi Arabia and target a member of the royal family confirmed the fears of Saudi officials that Yemen's instability could allow al-Qaida to carry out cross-border attacks from its new base in the neighboring country.

      The man who tried to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Thursday night came from Mareb, east of the capital, Yemen's foreign minister, Abu-Bakr al-Qirbi, told The Associated Press. ....

      The attempted assassination is the first known attack in Saudi Arabia carried out by a Yemen-based militant since separate al-Qaida operations in Yemen and Saudi Arabia merged in January.

      A crackdown on al-Qaida's Saudi branch forced it to move most of its operations to Yemen, where instability and poverty have enabled it to take root.

      Contributing to Yemen's lawlessness, the government lacks control of large areas beyond the capital and is battling insurrections against rebels in the north and separatists in the south. ....
      ..

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      • #4
        This is after the the fatal suicide attack on the Saudi Prince and anti-terror chief. It is more than a headache.

        Al-Qaeda launchpad in Yemen gives Saudis new headache
        19 hrs ago [AFP] DUBAI — Al-Qaeda's regrouping in Yemen is proving a headache for authorities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, who have dealt severe blows to the jihadists but have failed to eliminate the root causes of extremism in the kingdom, analysts say.

        The suicide attack on anti-terror chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef last week backs reports that Saudi militants have taken neighbouring -- and mostly lawless -- Yemen as a base to launch attacks in their home country.

        The bomber had crossed from Yemen for the meeting with Prince Mohammed, whom he deceived by claiming that he wished to repent. He was on a Saudi list of 85 most-wanted militants. ....

        Saudi and Yemeni branches of Al-Qaeda announced in January their merger into "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula".

        A leading member of Al-Qaeda's Saudi branch, Mohammed al-Awfi, who took part in forming the new alliance but later reportedly turned himself in, confirmed in televised confessions in March that Al-Qaeda is now using Yemen as a base to attack Saudi after security forces cracked down on its cells in the kingdom. ....

        In the latest blow to Al-Qaeda, Saudi security forces last month arrested 44 members, many of whom were described as highly educated, and uncovered large arms caches. .....

        Government capabilities in impoverished Yemen are already stretched thin, with a Shiite rebellion in the north demanding its troops, and a growing separatist mood in the former South Yemen. .....

        The rugged nature of the terrain, which stretches over 529,000 square kilometres (204,248 square miles) and shares nearly 1,500 kilometres (935 miles) of borders with Saudi Arabia, makes Yemen a suitable environment for armed groups to hide.

        Apart from having the new threat from Yemen, Saudi authorities are accused of not completing the fight at home through reforming education and clamping down on extremist teaching which nourishes Islamist militancy. .....

        Another Saudi analyst, who did not wish to be named, said the "roots of the problem have so far not been addressed," insisting that the Takfiri discourse, which accuses opponents of being apostates, continues to flourish in Saudi Arabia. ....

        Khsheiban argued that AL-Qaeda ideology in Saudi Arabia should be tackled by allowing more space for moderates. ....

        But hope of seeing a change appears dim, said Hezam. ...

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