Friday, September 25, 2009

Militant-activist group Al-Qaeda has recently issued new threats to Saudi Arabia of more attacks, incidentally following what appeared to be a suicide bomber’s unsuccessful attempt to kill a Ryadh interior minister last month, Prince Mohammad bin Nayef.

A Middle East-based Al-Qaeda leader by the name of Abu Baseer al-Wuhayshi was heard saying the following on a video posted online: “If you can flee with your skin, then do so. By Allah, they will climb your walls and will come to you from where you do not expect.”

“Our heroes have woven their grave-clothes with your blood,” he went on. Nayef, who is also responsible for security affairs, was lightly injured in an August 27 attack that could have claimed his life. The bomber was a militant by the name of Abdullah bin Hassan bin Taleh Assiri, who came to meet him from Yemen to his personal residence. He claimed to wish to hand himself in and also assist a group of other Saudis in Yemen to return home. While making a phone call to one of them in the reception room where they were meeting, he blew himself up.

In the last few years, Saudi Arabia has been much a target of unrest prevalent in the Middle East. This attack was the first to be perpetrated by Al-Qaeda on a Saudi government official after a similar high-profile attack in 2004. It was also the first attack attempted on a member of the royal family.