Steve Quayle News Alerts

Dec. 31, 2003

WASHINGTON Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia with links to Al Qaeda appear to be making a concerted new effort to destabilize the Saudi government by assassinating top security officials, according to senior U.S. officials.
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A series of assassination attempts in the last month, including a failed car bombing in the Saudi capital on Monday, have also included a previously undisclosed shooting in early December of Major General Abdelaziz al-Huweirini. As the No. 3 official in Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, he is the kingdom's top counterterrorism official.
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Huweirini, who has worked closely with U.S. officials, was wounded in an attack on Dec. 4, the U.S. officials said. No one has been killed in the attacks, which continue despite major setbacks for Al Qaeda in a battle with Saudi security forces.
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One Saudi king, Faisal, was assassinated in 1975 by a militant who was also a relative, but assassination attempts against Saudi officials have otherwise been almost unknown.
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Until this year, most major attacks by suspected Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia have been directed against American or other Western targets.
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Al Qaeda militants have carried out a wave of major suicide-bomb attacks in Riyadh, killing at least 50 people in the last seven months.
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But they have also been punished by a Saudi security crackdown in which hundreds of militants have been arrested and dozens more killed, and secret caches have been uncovered that contained tons of weapons and explosives.
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"The Saudis have done a good job of taking down a lot of their leadership," a senior U.S. official said Monday of Al Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia. "But they continue to be very dangerous and to go after royal family related targets."
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In the attack Monday, another security official narrowly escaped when he climbed out of his luxury car just before a bomb exploded, according to news reports from Riyadh.
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A U.S. official identified the target as a major from the Saudi Interior Ministry, which is known as the Mabahith and is similar to the FBI.
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At least one other car bomb was defused this month after it was found inside a vehicle parked near the headquarters of a Saudi intelligence service, U.S. officials said.
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The Saudi royal government has long been the principal target of Osama bin Laden and his followers, but the extent of Al Qaeda's network inside the kingdom, which has become evident in recent months, has surprised many Saudi and U.S. officials.
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Analysts from the CIA have warned that the crackdown may provoke Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia to step up their attacks, U.S. officials say, an assessment that was first reported by Knight Ridder newspapers.
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On Sunday, the British government warned that a terrorist attack could be in the final stages of preparation in Saudi Arabia. That warning amplified others issued this month by the United States, which on Dec. 17 authorized the voluntary withdrawal of family members and nonemergency personnel from the U.S. Embassy and consulates in the kingdom.
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The most recent major attack in Saudi Arabia came in November, when suspected Al Qaeda members used a bomb-laden car to blow up a housing compound in Riyadh, killing 18 people and wounding more than 100 others. In near-simultaneous attacks on several Riyadh compounds in May, 8 Americans were among the 34 people killed.
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This month, a previously unknown group that identified itself as Al Haramain Brigades, or the Two Mosques Brigades, said in a statement on an Islamist Web site that it had tried to kill a senior official of the Saudi Interior Ministry.
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The ministry has not acknowledged that the attack took place, but senior U.S. officials confirmed that it had and identified Huweirini as the target. The general's brother was seriously wounded in the shooting, the U.S. officials added.
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In the attack Monday, reports by Reuters and The Associated Press said the vehicle had exploded while parked in front of a building in the Salam residential district in eastern Riyadh.
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The site was quickly surrounded by the police, the reports said, and security officials confirmed that the car belonged to a major from the Interior Ministry.
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A statement read on Saudi state television said firefighters had put out a blaze ignited by what was described as a small explosion.
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Youssef al-Ayeri, a militant who was believed to have commanded Qaeda operations in Saudi Arabia, was killed in June in a shootout with Saudi security forces.
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But U.S. and Saudi officials have said they believe he has been replaced by Abdelaziz al-Miqrin, also known as Abu Hajir, who was trained at a Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, fought in Bosnia and served previously in Algeria. The New York Times

http://www.iht.com/articles/123322.html