Suicide Bomber Injures Saudi Prince

The House of Saud (royal family of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia) has been at overt odds with Osama bin Laden since 1994. At that time, the Kingdom revoked his citizenship and froze his assets within the country. This was due to bin Laden’s support for militant movements within the country. Once this happened, bin Laden was moved to the fringes of Saudi society and became more outspoken against the royal family. Bin Laden and dissident activists have called for the removal of the House of Saud ever since. 

The attacks of September 11 sent panic through the royal family. The House of Saud has spent the last 8 years being proactive in striking at militants. They have done this by keeping an iron grip on the country. The Saudi security forces know where everyone lives, with whom a person associates, and where one can find someone’s cousin. They have been fairly effective in their efforts. Members of the House of Saud have bragged that there hasn’t been an assassination attempt against the royal family since they began their preemptive strikes. That all changed this morning. 

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was injured by a suicide bomber earlier today. It is important to note that he is the head of security in Saudi Arabia. He is regarded by members of the American military as being an important up-and-comer within the royal family. And he is very much in control of the constraints put upon the militants who work within the region.

It is being reported that the Prince wasn’t terribly injured. 

Al-Arabiya (Saudi-owned television station) has not identified the suicide bomber. What is being reported is that the man who blew himself up was a wanted militant whom the Prince’s security forces were closing in on. The bomber reportedly wanted to turn himself in to Prince bin Nayef personally. Once the man was in the Prince’s vicinity, he pulled the trigger on his suicide belt. It is not known if the man was a member of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. But there is a great chance that he was. 

Militants have been thronging back into Saudi Arabia from Iraq within the last year. They have taken root in camps on the country’s boarder in Yemen. North Yemen has been in disarray due to past civil wars and ongoing power struggles between various factions of Sunnis and Shi’a. Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the Yemen power vacuum by installing itself in the region.