The Secret History of al Qaeda by Abdel Bari Atwan

The Secret History of al Qaeda by Abdel Bari Atwan

Author:Abdel Bari Atwan
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780863568435
Publisher: Saqi


Al Qaeda Moves Back Home

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had established an infrastructure of cells, safe houses, weapons and ammunition by the time the organization’s first emir, Yusef al-Ayeri, launched a blitz within the kingdom in May 2003. The US were still engaged in Iraq (where the Saudi government had once again proved a willing ally) though President Bush had declared major combat over on 1 May.

As al Qaeda became established in Saudi Arabia, the first cell was headed by Turki al-Dandani; The second, by Ali Abd-al Rahman al-Fag’asi (also known as Abu Bakr al-Azdi); the third, by a Yemeni, Khaled al-Najj (considered by some as the ‘real’ chief of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia) and the fourth by Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who encouraged individuals within the cell to establish their own independent networks, acting autonomously as an additional security measure. A fifth cell remained dormant, and when the others were subsequently infiltrated by security forces the leaders took refuge in this fifth cell.

The first cell was initially the strongest, best-financed and equipped. It was responsible for the first attack, which took place on 12 May 2003: a simultaneous mass suicide bombing by nine operatives who blew up three housing compounds for foreign workers in Riyadh, killing thirty-five people and wounding 200. A large number of Saudi nationals and other Muslims were killed in these attacks, which led to a dip in al Qaeda’s popularity.

‘Saudi people are not used to violence,’ Saad al-Faqih comments. ‘They cannot accept that it is easily done to kill a civilian American or European, and they are certainly not convinced that in order to kill one American you need to kill two or three Saudis.’

In August 2003 the US made the planned transfer of most of its 7,000 military personnel and 200 warplanes from the Prince Sultan airbase in al-Kharj to Doha, Qatar. Coverage in the American press suggested that bin Laden had hastened the move, which had been agreed at the end of April: ‘US military presence was opposed by some in the kingdom, and was among the reasons cited by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden for his al Qaeda attacks on America on September 11th 2001,’ said the newspaper USA Today.

Al Qaeda’s target range in Saudi Arabia widened to include all foreigners, especially those working in the oil industry. If there were to be a mass evacuation of key workers, they reasoned, Saudi oil production would be impaired, undermining the regime and the petrol-hungry US. Ayman al-Zawahiri had been urging jihadis to target oil production as a means of attacking the US since 2002.

Al-Muqrin, by now the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and an experienced mujahed who had fought in Bosnia and Somalia, organized the next major attack on 8 November 2003 – a suicide bombing of the al-Muhayya housing compound in Riyadh. Though this had formerly housed US nationals (employees of Boeing) there were few Americans living there at the time. Again, the majority of the eighteen who were killed were Saudis or other Muslims.



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