A SUICIDE bomber failed in his attempt to assassinate the prince who heads Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorism campaign.
It was the first attack on a member of the royal family since the start of a wave of violence by al-Qaeda six years ago.
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, deputy interior minister and son of the man thought likely to be the next crown prince, was meeting well-wishers on Thursday when a man blew himself up, a ministry spokesman said.
“The attack indicates that the threat is out there waiting to happen, sometimes at closer range than you would think,” said one western diplomat in Saudi, who declined to be named. “The royals will have plenty of reasons to worry in a country where weapons apparently find easy entry from porous borders to the north from Iraq, or the south from Yemen.”
As security chief, Prince Mohammed is one of the most powerful men in the kingdom and is credited with the government’s success in crushing the violence.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest petroleum exporter and a key US ally in the Middle East, was forced to confront its own role in rising militancy at home and abroad when its nationals turned out to be behind the 9/11 attacks on the US. – (Reuters)