Qaeda assassination plots against some officers of the General Intelligence Department, according to a report in Al-Jazirah Arabic daily. Al-Qaeda members targeted these officers because their team successfully foiled several militant operations, informed sources told the Arabic newspaper. According to the sources, Al-Qaeda member Abdul Aziz Al-Miqren was in charge of conducting assassination operations in the Kingdom and running the cells which implemented the organization's plans inside the Kingdom. In January 2002, Al-Miqren gave a two-week course to Qaeda members on how to carry out car and motorbike drive-by shootings and how to plant a bomb in a targeted car. Al-Miqren focused on targeting General Intelligence officers and anyone who opposed, or stood in the way of, the organization's agenda. He ordered Faisal Al-Dakheel to set up an assassination cell; Al-Dakheel formed the cell and instructed its members to gather information on General Intelligence officers and other senior officials. The group believed that all intelligence officers were apostates and deserved to be killed. The first assassination attempt was on the director general of the General Intelligence Department. Faisal Al-Dakheel and three other members, including Sultan Bajad Al-Otaibi, gathered information about the security situation at the director general's villa. Al-Dakheel decided to assassinate him using machine guns and grenades when he would stop his car at a traffic signal because it was difficult to carry out the operation inside his villa. When the operation was about to be carried out, Al-Dakheel ordered his members to wait till they knew for sure that the person inside the car was the director general. The plot failed. At the orders of Faisal Al-Dakheel, they also tried to assassinate the director of investigations at Riyadh Intelligence Department (Al-Jazirah has his name) using machine guns and grenades. They tried to assassinate him when he stopped at a traffic light but then decided to postpone the operation because his car moved fast. The Qaeda associates also tried to assassinate a major general but the operation failed, as a member was caught. They succeeded in planting a bomb in the major's car which went off when the major was not in his car. They then planned to assassinate a lieutenant colonel at the General Intelligence Department by pouncing on him, cutting his head off and videotaping the operation. But they couldn't succeed as the officer came out left the place before they could catch him. Al-Dakheel then planted an explosive in the officer's Lexus car. The officer felt something beneath the car, so he opened the door to check. The militants detonated the bomb at that time, but the officer survived. In January 2004, one of the Qaeda members was arrested near his store, which sold plumbing material at Al-Sili District in Riyadh. Security officers took him to his house at Al-Fayha District for a search operation. When Faisal Al-Dakheel learned about it, he and other members attacked the security forces at the house. They killed several security officers and escaped. However, security officers found large quantities of weapons and ammunition inside the building. Security officers also uncovered an ammunition store in Al-Salam District in Riyadh. It had a large number of weapons and RBG missiles. Officers arrested the wanted man. Investigations then led to the uncovering of one of the biggest terrorist dens in Riyadh.
