The al-Qaeda network has implied it carried out the attack in a message received today by a Saudi weekly newspaper.
The group had "been planning major operations for a long time in the Gulf where it had stocked large amounts of arms and explosives," al-Qaeda operative Abu Mohamed al-Ablaj wrote in an e-mail to Al-Majallah, which is published from London.
"The execution of this plan was not hampered by the recent announcement by the Saudi authorities of the seizure of large quantities of arms and explosives in the kingdom and the hunt for 19 people," said Ablaj, alias mullah Seif Eddin.
He described himself as the "co-ordinator of the Mujahedin training centre" run by al-Qaeda.
"Among the priorities of Al-Qaeda's new strategy, besides strikes at the heart of the United States, are operations in the Gulf countries and countries allied to America, particularly Egypt and Jordan," Ablaj said.
Osama Bin Laden had given instructions to wage a long-term guerrilla war in the Gulf similar to campaigns in Afghanistan and Chechnya, he said.
Al-Majallah, which was to print the full contents of the e-mail on Friday, said Ablaj told it on April 7th that al-Qaeda had completed preparations for "a forthcoming major operation in the Gulf, targeting the rear of the American army".
The newspaper reported last week that al-Qaeda was preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of September 11th after adopting a new operational structure that is impenetrable to US intelligence.
"An attack against America is inevitable," Al-Majallahquoted a spokesman for the Islamic militant network as saying in an e-mail.
AFP