A video purported to be from accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network shows Saudi militants planning, training for and carrying out what it said was the Nov. 8 bombing of a housing compound for foreigners in the Saudi capital Riyadh that killed 17 people. The 90-minute video, viewed on an Islamic Web site in Dubai, shows a vehicle driving up to what it says is the Muhaya compound in Riyadh before loud explosions and gunfire erupt. That portion is blurry and badly lit and the building is not visible. It was not possible to verify the video’s authenticity. However, it uses language similar to past statements attributed to Al Qaeda and the training scenes are like those seen in videos of Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. The Web site that showed the video has released other seemingly credible Al Qaeda statements.
I can probably cook up a "seemingly credible" al-Qaeda statement. You just take a Guardian editorial, add some anti-Semitism and random invocations of jihad and poof, jihadi statement all ready to go!
The new video contains excerpts from several of bin Laden’s previously broadcast comments, as well as the words of other Al Qaeda members and Khattab, a Saudi-born Chechen military leader who was killed by Russian forces in 2002.
Khattab was also al-Qaeda, but that’s neither here nor there ...
Militants are seen training with rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles and in hand-to-hand combat. The video also showed training courses on bomb-making and displayed detonators, timers and wires. It calls the training camp al-Battar and said it is on the Arabian peninsula.
Can’t be, Nayef sez they ain’t there.
"If we wanted to destroy the country, then attacking institutions beneficial to the people is much easier than killing a single American," said a man who identifies himself as Nasser bin Hamed al-Harbi, allegedly one of the two suicide bombers. The video showed men purported to be carrying out reconnaissance of the compound and said the attack was rehearsed repeatedly and computer-simulated. Some of the footage clearly came from a handheld camera. Two voices could be heard praying as the vehicle moved, moments before the sound of an explosion. Some members of the team that attacked the compound were believed to have escaped.
| Some of them always seem to get away in Soddy Arabia... |
In one scene on the video, more than 10 men are shown, most of them covering their faces with ski masks or Arab headscarves, carrying RPGs, semiautomatic weapons, grenades and AK-47 semiautomatic rifles. The video also showed the two purported suicide bombers. Some militants were shown spraying the vehicle dark blue with light blue stripes along the sides. Saudi authorities said the vehicle used in the attack had been painted to resemble a Saudi security vehicle, with a dark blue body and light blue markings. "The mujahedeen target only the crusaders. As for the infidel leaders, their day will come, God willing," a masked man identified in a subtitle as Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin said on the video, holding an assault rifle. |