CAIRO — A suicide bomber who was trying to kill the head of Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism efforts stumbled just short of his target and fell, detonating an explosion that had been arranged by an affiliate of Al Qaeda, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry said Friday.
The Saudi official, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who serves as deputy interior minister and is a member of the royal family, was slightly wounded in the attack in the Red Sea port of Jidda, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, said Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
The prince had allowed the wanted militant, who had come saying he wanted to turn himself in, to bypass security as a sign of good faith, General Turki said. The militant was killed by the explosion, the authorities said.
“He expressed his desire to turn himself in directly to the prince and the prince granted him his complete trust by requesting that he not be searched,” General Turki said. “And this is something that the prince does. It is not the first time, but it did not end in this deceptive manner before.”
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi arm of the terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a message posted on Islamist Internet forums and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. The attack was the first terrorist assault on a member of the royal family in decades.
It came during the holy month of Ramadan, after a long day of fasting, when the prince was greeting well-wishers in his home. When the man was allowed to bypass the security gate, he stumbled and fell, detonating the explosion, according to Interior Ministry officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details.
The prince was taken to a hospital, where he was met by King Abdullah, in a meeting broadcast on Saudi television. The king could be heard on the broadcast telling the prince that the man should have been required to go through the security measures, and the prince acknowledged that it was his mistake.
The attacker was a wanted militant who had insisted on meeting the prince to announce that he was giving himself up to the authorities, General Turki said. Members of the royal family in Saudi Arabia traditionally receive visitors during Ramadan and at other times of the year.
General Turki said that the authorities were aware of plans by Islamic militants to kill government officials and religious figures, but that the bombing provided a warning to be vigilant.
Prince Mohammed is the son of the interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, who is technically third in line to the Saudi throne.
In 2003, militants launched a 20-month wave of violence across Saudi Arabia that included the bombing of foreigners’ residential compounds in Riyadh; shootings of Western citizens and the beheading of an American; gun battles in Riyadh, Mecca and Buraida; suicide attacks on Saudi government buildings and oil facilities; and the storming of the United States Consulate in Jidda.
The Interior Ministry responded with a crackdown that is estimated to have resulted in thousands of arrests. Amnesty International reported last month that “massive human rights violations” and acts of torture had been committed by the Saudi security forces in their effort to contain radicalism.
Six weeks ago, after secret trials, more than 300 militants, many accused of having ties to the Qaeda network, were tried and convicted, and some were given prison terms of 30 years, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Jamal A. Khashoggi, the editor of Saudi Arabia’s Al Watan newspaper, said he feared that the attack was a sign of a new tactic for Al Qaeda. Prevented by security operations from carrying out complex bombing attacks, he said, the militants may shift to strategic assassinations of leaders to destabilize the Saudi state.
“It is serious,” he said. “What I am afraid of is that Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia will be transformed into an assassin’s group.”
Nadia Taha and Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York, Mona el-Naggar from Cairo, and Muhammad al-Milfy from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sT2CE5WElk4uVo9kGpZ8LqGvzRNPiUKN6nRNOUiOg-bjaxWYQY1gnpqRnjuufq21QD96dWuO3nPdGpvR6KwS3mXeDYZ-rwSXg0-mfJ76ALi-jyndrx0w_DkUi6BunhSF8AJG3Bak3UXEi_NjP9q70w=s0-d)
