Al-Qaeda of Saudi Arabia

Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Mosques (Arabic: القاعدة في بلاد الحرمين; al-qā‘ida fī bilād al-ḥaramayn), simply called Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia was the Saudi regional branch of Al-Qaeda. Despite being one of the most significant factions of Al-Qaeda, it ended in 2009 after it united with the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda to form Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Background

After the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden decided to establish an Al-Qaeda branch in Saudi Arabia and begin striking the Kingdom from within. Their first attack was meant to be a bombing in Riyadh, in which the bombs were being prepared in a house in the Al-Jazira neighborhood of eastern Riyadh. On March 18, 2003, a bomb exploded by mistake while it was being prepared in the house, and the explosives engineer, Fahd bin Saran Al-Saedi, died from it. After the police arrived at the house, it was found that the house contained highly explosive materials, ammunition, 12 machine guns, two rifles, 3 bombs, a laboratory, and fake identities. This operation was the first spark for launching the Anti-Terror operations in Saudi Arabia and declaring war on Al-Qaeda. On May 6, 2003, security forces chased a suspicious car. During the chase, security forces uncovered an empty house in the Ishbiliyah neighborhood, east of Riyadh, in which a cell affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia was hiding. Inside the house, 55 hand grenades were found. Various ammunition, a number of travel documents, identity proofs, other notebooks and pamphlets, sums of money, large iron bags filled with highly explosive paste materials, AK-47 machine guns, computers, and communications devices were also found. The house contained large amounts of disguise tools, such as wigs and masks. The explosive was RDX, which is one of the most destructive types of explosives.

The Saudi government, on May 8, 2003, issued a list containing the names of 19 members of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. This was the first list in the history of Saudi Arabia to announce the names of those wanted in security cases. The list included the most prominent members of the organization, namely, Turki Al-Dandani, Ali Al-Faqasi, Khaled Al-Juhani, Saleh Al-Awfi, Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, Abdul Karim Al-Yazji, Hani Al-Ghamdi, Muhammad Al-Walidi Al-Shehri, Rakan Al-Sikhan, Youssef Al-Aairi, Uthman Al-Umrain, Bandar Al-Ghamidi, Ahmed Al-Dakhil, Hamad Al-Shammari, Faisal Al-Dakhil, Sultan Gibran Sultan Al-Qahtani, Gibran Hakmi, Abdel Rahman Jabbara, Khaled Haj.

Activities

The first successful attacks of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia were a series of explosions, the first of which were four explosions that occurred in the capital, Riyadh, on May 12, 2003.Al-Qaeda targeted the Saudi branch with suicide operations using car bombs filled with explosives, four residential complexes, the first the Granada residential complex, the second explosion targeted the Jawadul residential complex, the third explosion occurred in the Al-Badi’ah neighborhood, west of Riyadh, and the fourth explosion targeted the Al-Hamra complex. The Ministry of Interior announced that the number of deaths resulting from the explosions had reached 20 people, while the number of injured had reached 194 people, most of whom sustained minor injuries. In addition, there were 9 charred bodies at the sites of the explosions, suspected to be members of Al-Qaeda. The presence of security personnel present in the complexes before the explosion and their exchange of fire with the terrorists contributed to avoiding major injuries and deaths among the residents of those complexes.The next day, the Saudi government announced that the death toll from the complex bombings in Riyadh had risen to 29 dead and 194 others injured. Among them are 9 bodies of the suicide bombers who carried out the attack, including 5 on the list of 19: Khaled Al-Juhani, Muhammad Al-Walidi Al-Shehri, Hani Abdel-Karim Al-Ghamdi, Gibran Hakami, and Abdel-Karim Al-Yaziji.

After the series of bombings that occurred in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia launched widespread arrest campaigns and raids that led to the dismantling of many cells, and the killing and arrest of many of their members. In attempts to avoid the recurrence of suicide operations by arresting members of Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch, before carrying out their suicide operations. The first campaign was on May 18, 2003, when Public Security forces arrested a cell consisting of 4 people belonging to Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch.On May 20, Public Security forces arrested a cell consisting of 3 people holding Moroccan nationality in the city of Jeddah. On May 24, Public Security forces stormed an empty house belonging to Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch in Al-Kharj Governorate, and found two bags containing highly explosive RDX materials.On the same day in Medina, Public Security forces arrested a smuggler with Yemeni nationality for smuggling 60 kg of TNT explosives to Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch.On May 26, Public Security forces arrested 5 wanted people, two of whom were inside a house in the Al-Iskan neighborhood in Medina. They are the ideologues of Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch, and they are Ahmed Hamad Al-Khalidi, Ali Khudair Fahd Al-Khudair, and three of them were in an Internet café in Medina, and they are: Saad. Abdul Razzaq Faydi Al-Ghamdi, Turki Abdul-Aziz Al-Fuhaid, and Muhammad Abdel-Fattah Muhammad Karam, a Moroccan citizen, were in possession of weapons and materials used to make explosives.On May 27, Public Security forces arrested in a villa in the Al-Azhari district of Medina: Nasser Hamad Hamin Al-Fahd, Muhammad Salem Al-Ghamdi, Hisham Mubarak Al-Hakami, Omar Mubarak Al-Hakami, Majdi Ahmed Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Khabarani, and Talib Ahmed Karim, a Moroccan. A group of various wires were seized from them to create electrical circuits for the purpose of detonation, chemicals, ammunition boxes, AK-47 machine guns, pistols, and a group of leaflets on which I wrote how to prepare explosive devices, and sums of cash. After a chase for one of the cars that fled from one of the arrest sites, the Public Security Forces were able to stop the car and arrest those in it. It turned out that it was driven by the so-called Abdel Moneim Ali Mahfouz Al-Ghamdi, and he was accompanied by three Arab women without IDs. They were Ghaida Ahmed Muhammad Sweida, of Syrian nationality, and she is the wife of the aforementioned Abdel Moneim. Hanan Abdullah Raqib, of Moroccan nationality, is the wife of Sultan Gibran Sultan Al-Qahtani, and Al-Ayadiah Ahmed Muhammad Al-Sayyad, of Moroccan nationality, is the wife of Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Faqaisi. Firearms and forged documents were seized from them.

The Saudi government dealt the strongest blow to Al-Qaeda on June 1, 2003, when public security forces in the city of Turbah in the northern Hail region stopped a confusing Toyota with two people traveling in it parked on the road and suspected it. When the security forces asked the driver to prove his identity, he fled, and the men... The security forces chased them, as they took a desert road. During the chase, the two fugitives threw a hand grenade at the security men, which resulted in the death of two soldiers and the injury of two other soldiers. After chasing them, the first leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, the founder Yusef Saleh Fahd Al-Ayiri, was killed, and the other was arrested, and after investigation it became clear that They tried to escape to Iraq.

After the killing of Youssef Al-Ayiri and Khaled Al-Hajj assuming leadership of Al-Qaeda, the Saudi branch, Khaled Al-Hajj began establishing 5 groups or cells affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the first being Al-Kharj Cell. The mission of this cell is to collect information about Prince Sultan Air Base in Al-Kharj, recruit those carrying out this work, photograph the base, and begin preparing and transporting weapons. And explosives to Al-Kharj Governorate to begin bombing the base. As for the second cell, which is the South Cell, the mission of this cell is to collect information about the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, photograph it, and collect weapons for the purpose of detonating them. As for the third cell, which is the Al-Ahsa cell, the mission of this cell is to smuggle and transport the cell leader, Turki Al-Dandani, and his main aides from Riyadh the day before the bombings occurred, and hide them in Al-Ahsa. As for the fourth cell, which is the Al-Jawf cell, the mission of this cell is to cover up Turki Al-Dandani and their efforts to smuggle him out of Saudi Arabia. As for the fifth cell, which is the Diriyah cell, the mission of this cell is to plan to implement goals, the most important of which are residential complexes inhabited by foreigners, the Al-Faisaliah Tower, and the Kingdom Tower, and targeting a bus transporting foreign children. The task of managing these five cells was entrusted to Turki al-Dandani and Ali al-Barqi.

Saudi Arabia's security campaigns did not stop after the killing of Al-Qaeda founder Youssef Al-Ayiri, but rather continued and increased to a greater extent than before. Saudi Arabia pursued Al-Qaeda cells in Saudi Arabia abroad, the first of which was to pressure Sudan to hand over 18 people linked to Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi government yielded to the pressure. It handed over 17 Saudis and Palestinians to Saudi Arabia on June 6, 2003, when the Sudanese government arrested them while they were training on the use of weapons in a training camp in the Laqwa area of ​​Kordofan State in western Sudan.As for the interior, on June 14, a chase that began at a checkpoint when the owner of a car refused to stop, and the group inside the car began shooting with AK-47 machine guns, led to an apartment in a building in the Khalidiya neighborhood in Mecca, in which a cell consisting of 17 Al-Qaeda members was hiding. Apartment raid emergency. 5 Al-Qaeda members were killed, and 12 members were arrested.The Saudi government announced that it had found bombs, weapons, chemicals, and explosive devices in the cell that was planning to carry out a specific terrorist attack in the Mecca region.