On October 4, 2010, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) published a one-hour video giving further details on the August 28, 2009 assassination attempt against Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Naif, carried out by an AQAP suicide bomber by means of an explosive charge concealed within his body.
The video, produced by AQAP's media company Al-Malahim and posted on the jihadi forum Shumukh Al-Islam, is a follow-up to two other AQAP publications (a communiqué and a video) dealing with this operation. It provides many details about the operation's planning and execution, revealing how AQAP tricked the Saudi intelligence operatives into providing a direct route to the prince himself, thus allowing the AQAP assassin to target him in his own palace.
In addition, the video provides information about a previous assassination plot against Muhammad bin Naif, involving a plan to shoot down a plane carrying the prince and his father, Saudi Interior Minister Naif bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz, who were to arrive in Yemen at the head of a visiting delegation.
The film incorporates footage of AQAP commander Sheikh Abu Basir Nasser Al-Wahishi; of his deputy Sa'id Al-Shihri, aka Abu Sufyan, who warns Muhammad bin Naif that if he does not stop persecuting the mujahideen the assassination attempts will continue; and of AQAP's military commander, Sheikh Qassem Al-Rimi, aka Abu Huraira Al-San'ani, who threatens the Arab "tyrants," saying: "We advise you: before going to sleep, shake out your bedclothes, for you might find one [of the mujahideen lying in wait for you], or an explosive charge that they left there... By Allah, we will not rest until we wipe out all heresy and all religion is Allah's."
Following is a detailed description of the video and the information it presents.
The First Failed Attempt to Assassinate Prince Muhammad bin Naif and His Father, the Saudi Interior Minister
In the beginning of the video, which is titled "Fuztu Wa-Rabi Al-Ka'ba" ("By the Lord of the Ka'ba, I Have Triumphed"), a narrator states that the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan have outraged thousands of young Muslims, and the jihad commanders urged them to join the jihad in Afghanistan. One of the young Yemenis who heeded the call was Badr Mushri', who tried to reach Afghanistan but could not cross the border. Upon returning to Yemen he was thrown into jail, where he met another young man named Salem Maqsaf Al-Nahdi. The two agreed that the Arab leaders of the region were "American agents" who had filled their prisons with decent and pious young men in order to serve the Crusaders and their plans.
