Al Qaeda Threatens to Hit More Saudi Sites
DONNA ABU NASR

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — al Qaeda suicide bombers will attack more Saudi oil facilities, the terror group purportedly threatened Saturday in an Internet statement that claimed responsibility for the foiled attack on the Abiqaiq plant in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Two suicide bombers tried to drive cars packed with explosives into Abiqaiq, the world’s largest oil processing facility, on Friday afternoon, but security guards opened fire and the vehicles exploded outside the gates, killing the bombers and fatally wounding two guards.

The Washington Post runs this Associated Press story by the reliable Donna Abu Nasr, which gives details of the attack. She says that there were two attackers (both killed) and two vehicles, and that the two Saudi security guards who were injured had later died of their wounds.

She also notes that US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez is in Riyadh today and that he was reassured by the Saudi government that the attack would not affect oil flows.

Abu Nasr describes a statement appearing on a jihadi website claiming that the attack was the responsibility of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and that it was “part of a series of operations that al Qaeda is carrying out against the crusaders and the Jews to stop their plundering of Muslim wealth.” This, of course, is very much within the Usama Bin Laden discourse.