The ambush and death of Abdulaziz al- Muqrin, three of his colleagues and the subsequent arrest of a dozen or more terrorist suspects has been hailed as a “major blow” to al-Qaeda by Adel al-Jubeir, a senior foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah. Saudi Arabia’s satisfaction at these events is justified. Al-Muqrin had proved a particularly elusive and enigmatic figure who taunted the failure of the Riyadh authorities to track him down at every turn. He and his associates were strongly linked with the attacks in the city of al-Khobar that left twenty-two people dead last month and the murder of BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers more recently, and suspected of a role in the assault on the USS Cole four years ago that killed seventeen US servicemen. That such a dangerous individual has been removed will be the cause of relief, not least among ruling members of the House of Saud dynasty.
Al-Muqrin’s demise came hours after the savage murder of Paul Johnson, the American contractor working for Lockheed Martin in the kingdom. The brutal method of death and the sickening exploitation of the internet to wallow in his beheading echoed the techniques employed against Nick Berg in Iraq by extremists there. It is a reminder that it is not necessary for sets of terrorists to have formal alliances or co-ordinated strategies to work for the same purpose. It is, instead, quite enough for them to have a common enemy and a shared willingness to engage in barbarism to advance their cause. There is, therefore, a clear link between the activities of factions that boast of their support for al-Qaeda in places such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and those operating against US and British interests in Iraq but who tend to be less vocal about their precise political or religious affiliations.
The effort against al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia must now intensify. Some officials there yesterday appeared to imply that al-Muqrin had led the only terrorist cell in that country, so that, with his death, the entire al-Qaeda structure on their soil had been dismantled. This would seem unduly optimistic. Most independent observers would contend there are hundreds of individuals with past links to or present sympathies with al-Qaeda in this region. Unless they are arrested and isolated, those who do business in and for Saudi Arabia are bound to continue to feel extremely uncomfortable about remaining. The kingdom cannot afford the damage to its economy or the impact on its image overseas that the mass withdrawal of such labour would surely bring with it. Complacency is not an option.
Nor is change avoidable. The root cause of the terrorist threat is the hardline conservative Islamist ideology that is promoted by the Saudi state itself and then twisted a little further by those of a more fanatical and violent mindset. The process of managing reform and reducing the influence exercised by those bent on hatred is inevitably difficult and will take time to implement. There must be, though, a strong sense that the scale of the task ahead is appreciated.
It is also important to be frank and consistent. At the same time as Mr al-Jubeir was speaking in Washington of a new vigilance in the War on Terror, Crown Prince Abdullah informed a domestic audience he was “95 per cent sure” that the al-Qaeda upsurge was “the product of Zionist hands” who had “poisoned the minds of our sons”. This is hardly an approach that will help Saudis to confront the horror in their midst. Reports of the demise of the House of Saud are premature and al-Qaeda does not have the mass appeal that it claims to be able to mobilise. But it will not be defeated if its true character is not openly acknowledged.