A key member of the Saudi Royal family, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, narrowly escaped an assassination bid on Friday when an al-Qaeda suicide bomber blew himself up inside his palace in Jeddah. Prince Muhammad, according to official Saudi Press Agency, received only minor injuries. He is the nephew of Saudi monarch King Abdullah, who rushed to the hospital to enquire about him.
This was the first major bid on the life of a prominent member of House of al-Saud in last five years and comes in the wake of the Kingdom's special forces apprehending 44 al-Qaeda linked terrorists and recovering huge cache of arms including suicide vests, automatic weapons and explosives last week. Hours after the attack, images of Muhammad, son of the Interior Minister Prince Nayef, were shown on Saudi Television, where he did not appeared to be much shaken up by the attack. Muhammad, Saudi Arabia's assistant interior minister for security affairs and in-charge of anti-terror campaign, was injured when the attacker mingled
The al-Qaeda claimed responsibly for the attack in a statement posted on its website.It is customary for the members of the Saudi Royal family to hold open meetings during the month long Ramadan and the bomber timed his attack with the holding of the mass at 11.30 pm (local time) on Thursday night. The Royal court said the bomber was a wanted terrorist who approached the prince on the pretext of giving himself up.
Muhammad was appointed assistant interior minister 10 years ago and has been at the forefront of the country's campaign against terror. The elusive al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden though born in neighbouring Yemen spent most of his childhood in Saudi Arabia and against whose royal family he holds an intense grudge. The country is also home to 15 of the 9/11 attackers in United States.
