Al-Qaeda targets the Saudi royal family

RIYADH- A member of the Saudi royal family and head of counter-terrorism fighting in the kingdom, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, escaped on Thursday from a suicide bombing claimed by Al-Qaeda, the first to seek an official of this rank since 2003.

•     Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Vice-Minister of Interior for Security Affairs and son of the Minister of Interior Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, suffers only from "superficial injuries", said Friday the official agency SPA, quoting a statement from the royal palace.
  
      The attack occurred in Jeddah (west) when the prince was receiving guests to congratulate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The assailant, a "wanted terrorist", had expressed his intention to visit the prince, who had accepted this proposal, the statement said.
  
      Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is behind the creation three years ago of a rehabilitation centre to put the on right path Saudi activists released from the U.S. prison of Guantanamo and some radicals Islamic arrested in the country.
  
      "At 11:30 pm local time (20:30 GMT) and while the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef received congratulating people for Ramadan, a criminal wanted terrorist, who has said he wanted to surrender, detonated a bomb concealed in his body during operations control, "according to the text from the palace.
  
      The bomber died and his body "was shredded into 70 pieces. None of the others received by Prince Nayef has been reached, the text added.
  
      The Saudi official was hospitalized for a few hours and made the "necessary examinations.”
  
      King Abdullah, who visited him in hospital, has raised a breach in the security system, according to state television Al-Ekhbariyah which showed the interview in which the prince seemed to fit with just a bandage on a finger of his left hand.
  
      "You took a risk. He had to be controlled," said the king to the prince who replied: "I was wrong; I asked that nobody touches him.”
  
      Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said the operation "strengthened (the) determination to destroy this lost faction," referring to the extremist network Al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, himself a Saudi national before being ousted.
  
      Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a network born of rallying the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda in Yemen that has claimed the attack in a statement reported by the U.S. central monitoring Islamist websites (SITE). SITE said that details of this claim will be published later.
  
      The institution created by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is one of the main elements of the Saudi policy to prevent a resumption of attacks from Al-Qaeda in the country, shaken by a wave of attacks between 2003 and 2006 against oil facilities and foreign targets. They have killed more than 100 Saudis and foreigners.
  
      This is the first time since 2003 that a member of the royal family is targeted by an attack.
      During and after the wave of attacks, hundreds of suspects were arrested in the kingdom and dozens killed.
  
      On 19 August, in the pursuit of counter-terrorism fighting, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 44 persons nominated as members of a cell recruitment and support to Al Qaeda. And June 8, the court had delivered its verdict in the trial of 330 suspected members of Al Qaeda, including at least one death sentence.
      
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.