Al Qaeda Imports Lebanese Unit to Blast Riyadh`s Muhaya

The suicide bombing attack Saturday night November 9 that devastated Riyadh’s Muhaya compound and killed scores was the work of an al Qaeda Lebanese team, according to our intelligence and counter-terror sources. With this strike, Osama bin Laden’s Lebanese arm made its debut on the stage of international terror.
debkafile has been reporting for more than a year that the Islamic network had built up three concentrations in Lebanon – in Tripoli in the north, Beirut and the Palestinian Ain Hilweh refugee camp in the south. Pointers to a Lebanese hit-team accumulated in the hands of Saudi intelligence and American counter-terror agencies in the Middle East 48 hours before the suicide bombers struck the Riyadh compound. The group was reported to be made up of al Qaeda operatives, Lebanese nationals and their Palestinian recruits.
In our 10 November on this page, we revealed the presence of Al Qaeda’s Nigerian cells secreted into the kingdom among the swarms of pilgrims visiting Mecca for Ramadan. One such cell was thwarted in its attempt to bring off a terrorist attack in the Muslim holy city. The Lebanese unit succeeded in its mission in Riyadh, but the wave of Islamic terror may not be spent. Security forces in Riyadh, Jeddah and Mecca are braced for further assaults while a top terror alert was extended Monday, November 10, to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where the US embassy decided to temporarily suspend operations until the peril had passed.
Al Qaeda’s targeting of Muhaya and its Arab population at first puzzled Saudi and foreign counter-terror authorities – until it was realized that many of the casualties were Lebanese Christians and the assailants Lebanese Muslims. The terrorist network had very pointedly opted to sow death inside a focus of Christian habitation in the Muslim kingdom on the Muslim feast of Ramadan.
The same mind-set is behind the terror alert declared in Sudan Monday, November 10. Here, the Al Qaeda poses a threat not only to US diplomatic missions but to the peace talks between the Muslim government and the Christian rebels of the south. Notices appearing of late on al Qaeda-linked Websites call specifically for all possible action to abort Sudan’s conversion from “an Arab-Muslim state to a country ruled by Christians.”
Monday, November 10, saw yet another turn of the Islamic extremist screw. debkafile‘s counter terror sources reveal that one of the heads of the authoritative Al Azhar university of Cairo issued a new fatwa stating that those fighting the holy war, the jihad, are permitted to break the sacred fast of Ramadan and eat during the day. This edict sanctifies Islamic suicide terrorism and raises it to a degree of holiness above that of Ramadan.
Israel is extremely disturbed by the effective teaming up of Lebanon-based al Qaeda operatives with local cells in Saudi Arabia for suicide strikes against non-Muslim targets in the Middle East. Bin Laden’s banner declares war “Crusaders (Christians) and Jews.” debkafile has reported the belief that al Qaeda sleepers have been present in Palestinian areas for some time. The network may also have planted cells in Israel and they could be waiting for orders to strike.