As TRC predicted in last week?s 2005 forecast (WAR Report), Saudi Arabia would see a marked increase in violence against government and royal family targets following Osama Bin Laden?s instructions in his December 16 address to Mujahideen to attack that such targets (WAR Report and Intel Report). The target of this attack is thought to have been not the buildings themselves, but rather the son of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef . Militants first detonated a bomb in a tunnel as the car carrying Prince Nayef?s son passed by, but the assassination attempt was unsuccessful. As the prince?s car sped to the safety of the Interior Ministry building, a car bomb and militants carrying small arms met his arrival with an attack on the main gate. The prince?s security then moved on to a second pre-determined safe position–a Saudi Special Forces building–where al-Qaeda was waiting with a third device. Despite the triple come-on assassination attempt, the militants failed in the end to hit their target.

The militants had advance knowledge of the prince?s movement through the tunnel and his pre-determined security plan, which was to head to the Interior Ministry building in the event of violence, then to the Special Forces Building. This is extremely suggestive of insider help. Saudi Arabia, typically selective when initially releasing details of attacks, originally reported only the explosions at the Interior Ministry building and Special Forces Building, omitting mention of the bomb in the tunnel as well as the fact that the attacks were part of an assassination attempt, rather than just violence against symbolic buildings.