Al-Qaida operative warned of Saudi attacks

An al-Qaida commander warned the terror network was about to stage major attacks in Saudi Arabia in an e-mail just a day before the deadly suicide bombings in Riyadh, an Arab magazine has reported.

The man, who identified himself as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, wrote in an e-mail on Sunday to the London-based Al-Majalla magazine that al-Qaida has stored arms and explosives and set up “martyrdom” squads in Saudi Arabia.

Those operatives, he wrote, were preparing to launch a “guerrilla war” against the rulers of Saudi Arabia and against the United States.

A US counter-terrorism official said the e-mail is seen as credible and implies al-Qaida responsibility for Monday night’s attacks.

Al-Ablaj is believed to be a known al-Qaida operative also known as Abu Bakr, the official said.

In correspondence with the Saudi-owned magazine, al-Ablaj has said he leads the training of al-Qaida fighters.

“Beside targeting the heart of America, among the strategic priorities now is to target and execute operations in the Gulf countries and allies of the United States, particularly Egypt and Jordan,” he wrote in the e-mail.

“The list of assassinations, the raid teams and the martyr operation squads are ready.

The caches of weapons, ammunition, explosives and bombs are plentiful, and the authorities cannot uncover them,” al-Ablaj wrote, according to the magazine.

“We will start by creating tensions to confuse the security services, then carry out major operations and lethal strikes.”

On Monday, attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronised strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off multiple suicide car bombs, killing at least 29 people.

Al-Ablaj first contacted the magazine three months ago by e-mail. Issam Abdullah, Al-Majalla’s senior political correspondent, said the magazine could not confirm his identity and did not know his whereabouts.

Al-Majalla reporter Mahmoud Khalil said he exchanged e-mails with al-Ablaj on Saturday and Sunday, sending him questions. Al-Majalla planned to publish the full interview on Friday.

Abdullah and Khalil said the magazine had now asked specifically if al-Qaida was responsible for Monday night’s attacks in the Saudi capital, but had not received a response yet.

Al-Majalla is owned by a Saudi media group thought to be close to the kingdom’s royal family.

“Osama bin Laden has issued strong directives to launch a guerrilla war in all forms, on a long term, in the nations of the Gulf ... We are ready to carry out many, very large operations,” al-Ablaj wrote in Sunday’s message.

“Al-Qaida shall carry the battle with all the guerrilla war experience it gained in Afghanistan and Chechnya to the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula.”

On May 7, Khalil provided the Associated Press with an interview with a man identified as the new spokesman for al-Qaida, Thabet bin Qais, who said the group had reorganised and was planning attacks against the US on the scale of September 11.

Bin Qais was quoted as saying the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organisation because of newcomers “who have a very good security cover”.