ANALYSIS:A number of Saudis who had been released from Guantánamo Bay fled to Yemen to join the terror group, on which they now form the majority
AL-QAEDA in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the organisation being blamed for last week’s US-bound parcel bombs, was responsible for the Christmas Day bombing attempt on a US airliner over Detroit.
The explosive material which was loaded into the parcels, PETN, was used in the Detroit bomb and also by a suicide bomber who tried to assassinate a Saudi prince in October 2009.
The latest devices were discovered in Dubai and Britain after Saudi Arabia – which appears to have infiltrated the terror group in the region – provided US, British and Emirati intelligence with the tracking numbers of the parcels.
AQAP was formed in January 2009 when al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi affiliates merged. US-born Yemeni activist Anwar al-Awlaki was the instigator of the merger which took place at a time when the Saudi element had been largely suppressed by the kingdom’s security agencies, forcing Saudi militants to seek refuge in Yemen.
A number of Saudis held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba were released, returned to Saudi Arabia and forced to undergo re-education before they fled to Yemen to join AQAP. Saudis comprise the majority of this group’s members.
Awlaki, a US-educated engineer, is a preacher said to have inspired two hijackers involved in the September 11th, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
He may have had a close internet connection with US army major Nidal Hasan who last year shot and killed 13 servicemen and wounded another 32 at Fort Hood in Texas.
Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin who attempted to explode a crude bomb in New York City’s Times Square, admitted he had been influenced by Awlaki.
AQAP transformed itself into the most active al-Qaeda organisation outside North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The terror group in the Arabian Peninsula is more an affiliate of the parent group than a splinter organisation and adheres closely to the teachings of al-Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni origin.
Bin Laden seeks to overthrow the western-aligned Saudi monarchy and liberate Jerusalem from Israeli occupation.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also determined to topple the secular Arab nationalist Yemeni administration which, over the past decade has co-operated closely with the US in the campaign against al-Qaeda.
Furthermore, Yemen’s security forces are fighting a Shia insurgency in the north and a secular campaign for secession in the south.
AQAP has about 400 fighters who are based in the eastern provinces.
The operatives, led by a former bin Laden aide Nasser al-Wuhayshi, have killed more than 50 Yemeni security men this year. The group has targeted diplomats, aid workers and foreign tourists and has forged ties to al-Shabab – al-Qaeda connected militants who are trying to impose an Islamic state in neighbouring Somalia.
