Al Qaeda says attack on Saudi to avenge US drones

Al Qaeda in Yemen has said that its attack on a Saudi border point earlier this month was in revenge for providing US drones with “land and sky” to target militants, Site Intelligence said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had already claimed responsibility for the July 5 operation in which six militants, and five officers on the two sides of the border were killed.

After initially saying the attack was in revenge for Islamist “female captives” held in Saudi prisons, the group now says it was also for the “disgraceful actions” of Saudi authorities by helping US drone strikes, the US-based monitoring group said.

In a statement posted online on Thursday, AQAP accused Saudi Arabia of “opening the land and sky of the Peninsula of (Prophet) Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to American drones,” Site reported.

“It was necessary to respond by taking revenge and disciplining this immoral regime that wears the cloak of religion falsely,” it added.

The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but US officials rarely acknowledge the covert operations.

The six militants killed in the operations were Saudi nationals wanted by authorities, according to the interior ministry.

The ministry had said that the militants attacked the Wadia border post, in the south of the kingdom, across from Yemen’s southeastern Hadramawt province, whose rugged terrain provides hideouts for AQAP militants.

AQAP, born in 2009 of a fusion of the Saudi and Yemeni branches of Al Qaeda, is considered by Washington to be the network’s most dangerous affiliate.