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| Arabia | |
| Soddies say Qatar hit means al-Qaeda's weak in the Kingdom | |
| 2005-03-21 | |
| The suicide bombing in Doha, Qatar took place three days after the airing of the taped speech of Al-Qaeda leader Saleh Al-Aufi. The target was a Western institution. Some analysts say Al-Qaeda is losing its strong image of power in Saudi Arabia and is breaking up. Terrorism specialist and researcher Faris ibn Hizam said that one could sense from Aufi's speech that he was not aware of what was going on in the country. "He did not talk about the recent events in Riyadh, nor did he elaborate on the attack on the Ministry of Interior last December," said Hizam. He said that that was a clear message that Al-Qaeda was breaking up and dissolving. In his speech, Aufi urged the followers and admirers of Al-Qaeda in the Gulf states to start moving and help back up Al-Qaeda. He started off with Qatar when he said "we urge our brothers Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE and all the Gulf states close to Iraq to help their brothers, each in his county by destroying machines, soldiers, bases and planes of the Crusaders".
The statement by Aufi does not show whether there is any sign of the presence of Al-Qaeda cells in those countries. However, there could be a cell waiting for a deadline to strike. The Qatar explosion may have something to do with that. Hizam believes that there may be only remnants of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia who are not well organized and that they may lose the right to be called an organization. "Beside a few cells in the Western region and Riyadh scattered here and there, there are no good signs of the presence of a well organized group in the Kingdom and we can say that the organization has come to an end," said Hizam. That was one of the reasons why Al-Qaeda was going Gulfwide under the leadership of Al-Zarqawi and with the slogan of "Facing Americans". | |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |