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Al-Qaida plans to launch massive attacks on U.S. and allied interests throughout the Mideast during the Islamic fast month of Ramadan.
Western intelligence sources said Osama bin Laden’s group has stepped up communications, the relaying of orders and propaganda for a sustained assault in Iraq, Jordan and several Gulf Cooperation Council states.
Leading targets for al-Qaida are Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In Iraq, the U.S. targets are numerous, but al-Qaida is expected to focus on the United States military leadership in Baghdad. This week’s missile attacks on the Baghdad hotel that housed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and other U.S. officials hinted at what al-Qaida plans over the next month.
Al-Qaida has plenty of friends in Iraq, remaining a shadow and employing subcontractors such as Ansar Al Islam and Sunni insurgents recruited over the last six months. Indeed, Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, director of operations at the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has termed Ansar “our principal organized terrorist adversary in Iraq right now.”
In Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida is expected to target Western civilian interests, particularly British and U.S. defense and oil contractors. Among the scenarios envisioned: car bombings and suicide bombers who infiltrate offices and gatherings of Western executives.
The prize, however, would be the downing of a Western airliner. Intelligence sources said Saudi Arabia has quietly confirmed that al-Qaida has obtained Soviet-origin SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles.
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