Reports: Osama Bin Laden’s Son Killed

Once in Iran, senior al-Qaeda leaders continued to operate their business as usual. In fact, U.S. intelligence officials believe that in April 2002 Saad bin Laden ordered one of al-Qaeda’s first post-9/11 attacks from Iranian soil. [Note: The April 2002 attack occurred in Tunisia.] More than a year later, on May 12, 2003, suicide bombers attacked three housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia almost simultaneously. Saudi and U.S. authorities quickly determined that the attack was ordered from Iranian soil by Saif al-Adel-one of the al-Qaeda terrorists trained by [Imad] Mugniyah in Lebanon and who is still wanted by the U.S. in connection with the August 1998 Embassy bombings. [Note: Mugniyah was subsequently killed in 2008.] Saad bin Laden had also been in contact with al-Qaeda’s cells in Riyadh. In addition, shortly after the bombing, Saudi authorities began searching for an al-Qaeda agent named Turki al-Dandani, who was thought to have played a key role in the plot. But he had already escaped to Iran. On May 16, 2003, just days after the attack on Riyadh, yet another string of suicide bombings rocked Casablanca, Morocco. In the worst terrorist attack in Moroccan history, one dozen al-Qaeda terrorists attacked two restaurants, a five-star hotel, a Jewish community center, a Jewish cemetery, and other targets. Two more would-be bombers were arrested by Moroccan authorities before they could carry out their attacks. Once again, the trail led back to Iran: intelligence officials linked Saad bin Laden to the Moroccan attackers.