Osama bin Laden is still giving direct orders for al Qaeda attacks, Saudi Arabia's next ambassador to the United States said on Sunday. Outgoing Saudi ambassador to Britain Prince Turki al-Faisal said some of the most recent attacks attributed to al Qaeda in the oil-rich kingdom had been directly ordered by the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
"Some of the events (attacks) that occurred in the kingdom over the past 2-1/2 years were under the immediate directions of the leadership of al Qaeda, particularly bin Laden," Turki said in comments broadcast by Reuters Television on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia has been battling a two-year wave of violence by supporters of Saudi-born bin Laden's al Qaeda network, who are trying to drive Westerners out of the world's biggest oil exporter and destabilise the pro-Western ruling family.
Many top militants have been killed or captured and the pace of attacks has slowed, but Western diplomats say the threat remains.
There has been an ongoing debate over how much direct control bin Laden exercises over al Qaeda since a US-led international effort to capture him and his top lieutenants began in 2001 after the attacks on the United States.
Turki said some al Qaeda groups operated autonomously because they were in places where it was difficult to communicate with al Qaeda's central command. "In such cases, it is left to those in charge of those networks to decide when, how and where to take their measures," Turki said.
Turki's former role as Saudi foreign intelligence chief brought him into contact with bin Laden when both the United States and Saudi Arabia were supporting Arab mujahideen (freedom fighters) fighting Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.
Turki is due to take over as Saudi ambassador to the United States from Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who enjoyed unrivalled access to the very top of US political power.
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