Al Qaeda threatens attacks on Saudi royals

Al Qaeda threatens to launch fresh attacks on Saudi royal family members in a video message posted on the internet.

DUBAI: Al Qaeda threatened to launch fresh attacks on Saudi royal family members in a video message posted on the internet on Tuesday commemorating a 2009 bombing targeting the interior minister.

"We say to the tyrants that we can get you in your offices, we can get you in your bedrooms," said Qassem al Rimi, a commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"I advise you to check before going to bed that there's no suicide bomber or bomb in the room," Rimi added.

An al Qaeda suicide bomber attacked Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism chief, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, on August 27, last year as he was receiving members of the public.

"You attacked our houses and destroyed our homes, so we have attacked yours and destroyed your palaces," the al Qaeda branch's assistant commander, Said al-Shihri, said in the video posting.

Al Qaeda said it had also narrowly missed Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz in another attack last year as he flew into the Yemeni capital Sanaa on a visit.

The group said it had attempted to target the visiting Saudi delegation with a surface-to-air missile and had also planned to shell the welcoming ceremony at the airport.

Earlier in the day, in a suspected al Qaeda attack, a rocket was targeted at in the a vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the British mission in Yemen and a gunman opened fire at an Austrian oil and gas firm, killing a Frenchman.