Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Mosques (), officially known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was the Saudi Arabian regional branch of al-Qaeda. It was founded shortly after the September 11 attacks, and dissolved in 2009 after it merged with al-Qaeda in Yemen to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.- تنظيم القاعدة في السعودية نشأته و نهايته - موقع السكينة - 9 - اغسطس - 2014
Background After the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden ordered that a branch of al-Qaeda be established in his home country of Saudi Arabia. Al-Ayiri eventually established it and was its first leader. Their first attack was meant to be a bombing in eastern Riyadh, in which the bombs were being prepared in a house in the Al-Jazira neighborhood. On March 18, 2003, a bomb prematurely exploded while it was being prepared in the house, causing the death of the explosives engineer, Fahd bin Saran Al-Saedi. After the police arrived at the house, it was found that the house contained highly explosive materials, ammunition, 12 machine guns, two rifles, three bombs, a laboratory, and fake identities. This operation was the first spark for launching the Anti-Terror operations in Saudi Arabia and declaring war on al-Qaeda. On May 6, 2003, security forces chased a suspicious car. During the chase, security forces uncovered an empty house in the Ishbiliyah neighborhood in eastern Riyadh, in which a group of al-Qaeda militants were hiding. In the house, 55 hand grenades were found. Various ammunition, several travel documents, identity proofs, other notebooks and pamphlets, sums of money, large iron bags filled with highly explosive paste materials, AK-47 machine guns, computers, and communications devices were also found. The house contained large amounts of disguise tools, such as wigs and masks. The explosive was RDX.
On May 8, 2003, the Saudi government issued a list containing the names of 19 members of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. This was the first list in the history of Saudi Arabia to announce the names of those wanted in security cases. The list included the most prominent members of the organization, namely, Turki Al-Dandani, Ali Al-Faq'asi, Khaled Al-Juhani, Saleh Al-Oufi, Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, Abdul Karim Al-Yazji, Hani Al-Ghamidi, Muhammad Al-Walidi Al-Shehri, Rakan Al-Sikhan, Youssef Al-Aairi, Uthman Al-Umrain, Bandar Al-Ghamidi, Ahmed Al-Dakhil, Hamad Al-Shammari, Faisal Al-Dakhil, Sultan Gibran Sultan Al-Qahtani, Gibran Hakmi, Abdel Rahman Jabbara, Khaled Haj.
Initial activities AQBH's first successful attacks were a series of bombings; the first of which were four explosions that occurred in the capital, Riyadh, on May 12, 2003. AQBH made suicide operations using car bombs filled with explosives, and targeted four residential complexes, the first being the Granada Village, an upper-class private residential complex, the second targeting the Jawadul residential complex, the third occurring in the Al-Badiah neighborhood, and the fourth explosion targeting the Al-Hamra complex. The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced that the number of deaths resulting from the explosions had reached 20 people, while the number of injured had reached 194 people, most of whom sustained minor injuries. In addition, there were 9 charred bodies at the sites of the explosions, suspected to be AQBH suicide bombers. The presence of security personnel present in the complexes before the explosion and their exchange of fire with the terrorists contributed to avoiding major injuries and deaths among the residents of those complexes. The next day, the Saudi government announced that the death toll from the complex bombings in Riyadh had risen to 29 dead and 194 others injured. Among the casualties were 9 of the suicide bombers, including 5 on the list of 19: Khaled Al-Juhani, Muhammad Al-Walidi Al-Shehri, Hani Abdel-Karim Al-Ghamdi, Gibran Hakami, and Abdel-Karim Al-Yazji. After the series of bombings that occurred in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia launched widespread arrest campaigns and raids that led to the dismantling of many cells, and the killing and arrest of many of their members. In attempts to avoid the recurrence of suicide operations by arresting members of AQBH, before carrying out their suicide operations. The first campaign was on May 18, 2003, when Public Security forces arrested 4 AQBH members.
On May 20, Public Security forces arrested 3 Moroccan citizens in the city of Jeddah. On May 24, Public Security forces stormed an empty house belonging to AQBH, and found two bags containing highly explosive RDX materials. On the same day in Medina, Public Security forces arrested a Yemeni smuggler for smuggling 60 kg of TNT explosives to AQBH. On May 26, Public Security forces arrested 5 wanted people, two of whom were inside a house in the Al-Iskan neighbourhood in Medina. They are the ideologues of AQBH, and they were Ahmed Hamad Al-Khalidi, Ali Al-Khudair, and Fahd Al-Khudair, and three of them were in an Internet café in Medina, and they were: Saad. Abdul Razzaq Faydi Al-Ghamdi, Turki Abdul-Aziz Al-Fuhaid, and Muhammad Abdel-Fattah Muhammad Karam, a Moroccan citizen, were in possession of weapons and materials used to make explosives. On May 27, Public Security forces arrested in a villa in the Al-Azhari district of Medina: Nasser Hamad Hamin Al-Fahd, Muhammad Salem Al-Ghamdi, Hisham Mubarak Al-Hakami, Omar Mubarak Al-Hakami, Majdi Ahmed Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Khabarani, and Talib Ahmed Karim, a Moroccan. A group of various wires were seized from them to create electrical circuits for the purpose of detonation, chemicals, ammunition boxes, AK-47 machine guns, pistols, and a group of leaflets on which I wrote how to prepare explosive devices, and sums of cash. After a chase for one of the cars that fled from one of the arrest sites, the Public Security Forces were able to stop the car and arrest those in it. It turned out that it was driven by the so-called Abdel Moneim Ali Mahfouz Al-Ghamdi, and he was accompanied by three Arab women without IDs. They were Ghaida Ahmed Muhammad Sweida, of Syrian nationality, and she is the wife of the aforementioned Abdel Moneim. Hanan Abdullah Raqib, of Moroccan nationality, is the wife of Sultan Gibran Sultan Al-Qahtani, and Al-Ayadiah Ahmed Muhammad Al-Sayyad, of Moroccan nationality, is the wife of Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Faqaisi. Firearms and forged documents were seized from them.
The Saudi government dealt the strongest blow to AQBH on June 1, 2003, when public security forces in the city of Turbah in the northern Hail region stopped a confusing Toyota with two people traveling in it parked on the road and suspected it. When the security forces asked the driver to prove his identity, he fled, and the security chased them, as they took a desert road. During the chase, the two fugitives threw a hand grenade at the security officers, which resulted in the death of two soldiers and the injury of two other soldiers. After chasing them, the first leader of AQBH, Al-Ayiri, was killed, and the other were arrested, and after investigation it was found that they tried to escape to Iraq.Re-Reading al-Qaeda Writings of Yusuf al-Ayiri von Roel Meijer, ISIM Review 18, Herbst 2006
Saudi government crackdowns After the killing of Al-Ayiri, Khaled Al-Hajj assumed leadership of AQBH. Khaled Al-Hajj established 5 teams, the first being Al-Kharj team. The mission of that team was to collect information about Prince Sultan Air Base for a future attack. As for the second team, their mission was to collect information about the King Khalid Air Base for the same reason. The third team, their mission was to smuggle and transport their team leader, Turki Al-Dandani, and his main aides from Riyadh the day before the bombings occurred, and hide them in Al-Ahsa Oasis. As for the fourth team, which was the Al-Jawf team, their mission was to support the third team. As for the fifth team, their mission was to plan attacks on residential complexes housing foreigners, the Al Faisaliah Tower, the Jeddah Tower, and a bus transporting foreign children. The task of management these five cells was entrusted to Turki al-Dandani and Ali al-Barqi.
Saudi Arabia's security campaigns did not stop after the killing of Al-Ayiri, but rather continued and increased to a greater extent than before. Saudi Arabia pursued AQBH members abroad, the first of which was to pressure Omar al-Bashir to extradite 18 people linked to AQBH. Sudan eventually handed over 17 to Saudi Arabia on June 6, 2003, when the Sudanese government arrested them while they were training on the use of weapons in a training camp in the Laqwa area of Kordofan. Internally, on June 14, a chase that began at a checkpoint when the owner of a car refused to stop, and the group inside the car began shooting with AK-47 machine guns, led to an apartment in a building in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Mecca, in which a cell consisting of 17 AQBH members was hiding. Apartment raid emergency. 5 AQBH members were killed, and 12 members were arrested. The Saudi government announced that it had found bombs, weapons, chemicals, and explosive devices in the cell that was planning to carry out a specific terrorist attack in the Mecca region.
On June 23, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud offered to reduce the punishment for those wanted by the security services who declare their repentance within a month. This decision caused a strong shock to the organization, as many leaders and members defected from the ranks of AQBH, and surrendered themselves to the Ministry of Interior, most notably Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Faqaisi، and Mansur ibn Muhammad Ahmad Faqih and Abdullah ibn Atiyah Haziz al-Salmi،
On July 1, 2003, Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced in his speech before the Shura Council that the total number of those arrested was 124 people linked to AQBH. On the same day, the wanted security officer, Dhafer bin Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah Al-Maqar Al-Shehri, surrendered himself to the Public Security Forces after a three-day chase, and 50 AK-47 machine guns and other materials were found in the house where he was hiding in Al-Namas in the Asir region.
Three days after the Minister of Interior, Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, announced the death toll of those arrested, 4 wanted persons committed suicide by blowing up their bodies inside a mosque in a village in the Al-Jawf region, and the wanted persons took the initiative to open fire on the security men while they were surrounded in the mosque, namely Turki Al-Dandani and Abdul Rahman Jabara, who is Kuwaiti, Rajeh Al-Ajmi, who is Kuwaiti, and Amash Al-Subaie, while Musaed Al-Ruwaili, the imam of the mosque, surrendered himself to the security authorities، Security personnel also arrested 3 people who intended to smuggle wanted persons out of Saudi Arabia.
On July 21, the Ministry of Interior announced the thwarting of terrorist operations that were prepared to be carried out by extremist cells in Riyadh, Qassim, and the Eastern Province, led by about 15 people, who used the ground in homes, farms, and rest houses to store chemical mixtures for manufacturing explosives weighing 20.7 tons, and 18 RPG shells.