Path of Blood

Synopsis

Timeline of key events

• 18 March 2003 – Fahd al-Saadi, a Yemeni member of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, accidentally sets off an explosive device at a safe house in Riyadh, killing himself and alerting the authorities to the presence of an active terrorist network within the Kingdom.
• 22 April 2003 – A major shootout occurs between Al Qaeda militants, led by AQAP leader Turki al-Dandani, and police during an attempt raid on a safe house in Wadi Laban, west Riyadh. All of the militants escape.
• 12 May 2003 – Al Qaeda bomb three residential compounds in east Riyadh, killing 27 people and wounding over 200. Most of the victims are foreigners working in the Kingdom.
• 8 November 2003 – Al Qaeda bomb the Muhaya residential compound in west Riyadh during Ramadan, killing seventeen people and wounding over a hundred. Most of the victims are Muslims.
• Early March 2004 – Al Qaeda's plans to carry out a much larger co-ordinated bomb attack in Riyadh's diplomatic quarter are thwarted by a series of raids and arrests. The attack is called off and a new plan is drawn up.
• 17 March 2004 – Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin formally names the terrorist organisation under his leadership Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
• 21 April 2004 – Al Qaeda bomb the General Directorate of Traffic in Riyadh, having failed to reach their intended target, the headquarters of the Emergency Forces. Six people are killed and 148 are wounded. All victims are Muslims.
• 1 May 2004 – Al Qaeda militants shoot and kill seven people at the premises of ABB Lummus Co. in Yanbu, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. All but one of the victims are foreigners.
• 23 May 2004 – Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz tells prominent intellectuals at a Royal Diwan in Jeddah that they must play a greater role in providing guidance to Saudi youth, and that failure to report extremism will be considered treachery.
• 29 May 2004 – Al Qaeda militants in the eastern city of Khobar shoot and kill 22 people in multiple locations across the city before escaping undetected. They kill four at the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation building and four at the city’s Petroleum Centre, before taking more than 200 people hostage at the Oasis Residential compound, killing 14. Al Qaeda claim the militants were able evade capture and escaped from the compound. 2004 Khobar massacre
• 6 June 2004 – Al Qaeda shoot BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and kill his cameraman Simon Cumbers in the Suwaidi neighbourhood of southern Riyadh. Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin is later reported to have been present.
• 12 June 2004 – Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr., a US expatriate working for the Advanced Electronic Company, is kidnapped by Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin’s cell in Riyadh. On 13 June they broadcast a video of their hostage demanding the government exchange him for imprisoned Al Qaeda members. On 18 June, when their demands are not met, they torture and behead him on tape.
• 18 June 2004 – Hours after the beheading of Johnson, Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin and three of his senior deputies are cornered by Saudi security services at a petrol station in central Riyadh. In the shootout that follows, all four militants are killed.
• 23 June 2004 – The Saudi government offers a thirty-day limited amnesty to ‘terrorists’. Six AQAP members turn themselves in.
• 20 July 2004 – The Saudi security services raid a villa in the King Fahd neighbourhood of Riyadh. This villa had served as AQAP’s main Media Centre, producing both Voice of Jihad magazine and the group’s propaganda videos. Security forces seize hundreds of hours of Al Qaeda video footage and discover Paul Marshall Johnson’s head in a freezer.
• 21 September 2004 – The Saudi government broadcasts the first in a series of programmes on television featuring interviews with former members of AQAP.
• 6 December 2004 – Al Qaeda storm the US Consulate in Jeddah but fail to break into the main consulate building. Five consulate guards are killed and twelve people are wounded.
• 29 December 2004 – A double car bomb attack targets the Ministry of Interior and the headquarters of the Emergency Services. Both car bombs are prevented from getting close enough to their targets to cause significant damage. The suicide bombers are the only fatalities.
• 3 April 2005 – Saudi security forces launch a three-day siege against 19 Al Qaeda members who have barricaded themselves inside a villa in the town of al-Rass. Fourteen militants are killed and five arrested.
• 24 June 2005 –It is reported that Abdullah al-Rashoud, a leading AQAP preacher, has been killed by a US air strike in Iraq.
• 1 August 2005 – King Fahd bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia dies aged 84. He is succeeded by his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah.
• 4 September 2005 – Two Al Qaeda members fire upon police outside of a supermarket in Dammam, Eastern Province. Police trace the militants back to a villa in the Mubarakiya neighbourhood, where they engage Al Qaeda in a two-day siege. Four security men are killed and over seventy are wounded.
• 24 February 2006 – An Al Qaeda cell led by Fahd al-Juwayr carries out a twin truck bomb attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Abqaiq, Eastern Province. The group kills three security guards, but fails to cause major damage to refinery.
• 27 February 2006 – Fahd al-Juwayr’s group are tracked by security forces back to a rented villa in the Yarmouk neighbourhood of eastern Riyadh. A gunfight ensues in which all five members of the cell are killed, including leader Juwayr.
• 28 August 2009 – Suicide bomber Abdullah al-Asiri attempts to assassinate Prince Muhammad bin Nayef at his palace in Jeddah. The prince survives with only minor injuries.

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