RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida attempted this week to assassinate one of the key Saudi figures cooperating with the Bush administration's war on terror. This heralds a new, all-out campaign by the terrorist group to topple the House of Saud from power, administration officials said.
In this latest incident, al-Qaida gunmen tried to shoot Prince Mohammed bin Naif, number three in the Saudi Interior Ministry and the son of the Interior Minister Prince Abdul Aziz Naif, as he was emerging from his office, U.S. intelligence officials said.
But these same sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Naif escaped unharmed.
"We are seeing the situation there become truly ominous," a U.S. government official said of the escalating violence.
Tensions in Riyadh have been running high since Nov. 25, when Saudi security forces, assisted by a joint CIA-FBI team, chased three suspicious vehicles packed with tons of explosives, that were about to blow up targets in the capital city of Riyadh, these officials said.
It was the first time that the target was the Royal Family in the capital, according to several U. S. government sources interviewed by United Press International.
