The Saudis kill six involved in Abqaiq attack, including three on the most wanted list; Jordan thwarts an al Qaeda plot, the Long War grinds on
Saudi security forces have killed five members of al Qaeda and captured one after the unsuccessful attack suicide attack on the massive oil facility in Abqaiq. During the strike, two suicide car bombs detonated after the drivers were unable to breach ARAMCO’s security ring. A third vehicle, which was carrying three senior members of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, including its former commander, fled to Riyadh. Saudi security forces tracked the vehicle to a safe house in Riyadh. Asharq Alawsat provides the details:
Early on Monday, security forces besieged the house and exchanged fire with the five militants who were armed with machine guns and hand grenades. The militants barricaded themselves behind two cars, one of which was later identified as having been used in the attack on the oil production facility.
Born in al Zulfi, the 36-year-old Juwair was number two on the list. He took over the leadership of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia in July following the death of Younis al Hayari, a Moroccan, in a shootout in Riyadh . No 11 on the list of most wanted, Ibrahim al Mutair was a computer expert while Abdullah al Shammari, No 15, who assisted al Qaeda with transportation, had previously been detained by the authorities but released after he and his family promised to distance themselves from extremism.
For his part, Jaffal al Shammari, aged 28, was previously arrested for his links to al Qaeda and was known to be obtaining information about bomb making.
The Ministry statement added that 21-year-old Suleiman al Talq had been active on extremist internet forums.
Saudi security forces have dealt al Qaeda in the Kingdom a blow, as this is the sixth al Qaeda commander killed since the hot war began in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Senior commanders are at a premium in the Kingdom, as Saudi Security forces have ravaged the ranks of the organization. Regardless, al Qaeda will continue to attempt to disable Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure. The target is far too tempting, and Osama bin Laden has made this a high priority target.
The Kingdom of Jordan is another target-rich environment for al Qaeda. After two al Qaeda inmates are rumored to have been sentenced to death, prisonors started a riot in a Jordanian jail, and captured Jordan’s cheif of prisons along with six security guards. In the wake of last November’s multiple suicide strikes on hotels in the capital of Amman, which killed 57 and wounded over 100, Jordanian intelligence has uncovered another suicide plot against an undisclosed “a critical civilian installation.” A Libyan would-be suicide bomber and two Iraqis providing logistical support were arrested. Three other Iraqis and a Saudi national are currently sought by the Jordanian police and are believed to be in hiding in Syria. While there is no word if this was a Zarqawi-inspired plot, he was behind the Amman bombing in 2005 and the spolied chemical weapons attack against Jordanian intelligence and government installations in April of 2004.
While al Qaeda has been largely unsuccessful in its efforts in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and attacks in both countries have resulted in a backlash against the brutal tactics of suicide bombings targeted against Muslims, al Qaeda continues to press the fight in the hopes the government’s ties with the West can be damaged or broken, and the downfall of the ‘infidel’ regimes follow. This is the strategy as laid out by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, Saif al-Adel, al Qaeda’s military commander and strategist.
Incidentally, Saif al-Adel modified his twenty year plan for conquest of the Middle East, and extended the timeframe to fifty years. This tells us two things: 1) al Qaeda does not believe things are going well in the short term. Iraq has not turned into a terrorist haven, and the governments of Jordan, Syria, Lebenon, and Saudi Arabia are no where near collapse; 2) while down, al Qaeda is not out. The organization defines the jihad in terms of decades and centuries. Many western terrorism and military experts refer to the struggle against militant Islam as the “Long War” because al Qaeda is committed to a multi-generational fight.
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The Iraqi border guard force today produced a captured Saudi, Abdullah Salah al-Harbi, for reporters who admitted he was involved in the suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in Saudi Arabia.
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Al-Harbi told interrogators he was headed to the predominantly Sunni northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where he planned to meet cattle merchants who have links with al-Qaida, al-Jabiri said.
“I came to Iraq to fight Americans, not Iraqis,” the spokesman quoted al-Harbi as saying.
Suspect in Saudi Refinery Attack Nabbed
In Iraq, with so much attention on the secterian violence and civil war talk, what is happening under the radar is that Coalition and Iraqi forces also continue to stick it to AQIZ.
Not only has Abu Asma, AQIZ Military Emir of Northern Baghdad been killed, Coalition raids have been highly successful.
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Daily/Mar/060303.htm
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Oops, this wasn’t included in my original post.
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Lynch cited ongoing Operation Said, and how, on Feb. 27, Coalition Forces raided an Al Qaeda-in-Iraq training and bomb-making facility. CF captured 61 suspected AQIZ facilitators in multiple raids 30 miles northeast of Fallujah. The suspects are believed to be members of the Zarqawi network, and to have personally facilitated suicide bombers, foreign fighters and the funding of terrorist activities.