Al Qaida military planners maintain discipline despite losses

Al Qaida has weathered losses and has retained operational capabilities throughout the Persian Gulf.

U.S. officials said Al Qaida has been bolstered by military planners from Africa and Asia who have been able to draft and implement a strategy for multi-pronged attacks against U.S. and other critical facilities in the Gulf region. The plans would probably reflect the success of attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003, they said.

"A study of Al Qaida tactics reveals a meticulous, careful and educated foe capable of designing multidimensional attacks within a limited attack space," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. James Pelkofski, commanding officer of the USS Deyo.

Officials said Al Qaida operations involve two preliminary phases. The first includes operational surveillance, in which a target could be observed for months in to determine ways to breach defenses. The second phase involved target approach, combining deception with rapid entry. The most common technique is to obtain official uniforms and vehicles.

Officials expect Al Qaida to devise new methods of attack as the United States and its allies increase security. One option, they said, was the hijacking of a commercial boat to enter a port and destroy a Western warship.

Pelkofski detailed Al Qaida's capability to create diversions to facilitate entry into protected sites, including U.S. facilities. He cited the 1998 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in which a truck carrying explosives posed as a delivery vehicle and approached the Embassy's back gate. There, Al Qaida assailants attacked guards with light weapons and grenades and brought the truck bomb into the compound where it was detonated.

Al Qaida reached the height of its operational capability with the multi-pronged attack on three housing complexes in Riyad in May 2003. In that attack, Al Qaida operatives wearing Saudi National Guard uniforms drove their vehicles toward the entrances to the compounds. Once again, the operatives overpowered the guards and entered with explosives-laden vehicles and detonated them.

Al Qaida has also developed a two-stage assault technique. In the first stage, operatives would execute an initial assault in an attempt to create a diversion or defeat target defenses. In the second stage, a car bomb would be brought to destroy the target and its occupants.

"Terrorist teachings cite historical examples of commercial ships used as decoys to get close to enemy warships before opening fire with hidden guns," Pelkofski said.

Pelkofski said the U.S. Navy cannot assume friendly intent when encountering suspicious vessels. He cited methods employed by the Israel navy to defeat insurgency threats in the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

"The Israel navy is aware of terrorist tactics that use emergency calls to lure a navy ship close to a vessel ostensibly in need of assistance but rigged for a lethal explosion — a stratagem often augmented by the distressed voice of a female caller," Pelkofski said. "Terrorists teach the value of authentic disguises, a masquerade enhanced by terrorists trained to an intimate understanding of the role being played."