Qaeda will find oil targets tough to hit-analysts

reuters: Al Qaeda will find it hard to deal a deadly blow to heavily-fortified oil facilities in Gulf states that supply a fifth of global energy needs, security experts and analysts said on Wednesday.

Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged militants to strike oil targets in an Internet video posted on Wednesday -- echoing a similar call by Osama bin Laden who said in a December tape this would be the most powerful weapon against America.

Al Qaeda militants have over the past years bombed an oil tanker in Yemen, hit Iraq's vital Basra Oil Terminal and killed foreigners in oil and petrochemical cities in Saudi Arabia.

But analysts said it was highly unlikely the group would be able to reach key oil infrastructure in top world exporter Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations in the Gulf region.

"Al Qaeda's idea is to deal a blow to governments by hitting the economy. And in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar that depend on their oil wealth, it would be a big blow," said Fares bin Houzam, an independent researcher on al Qaeda.

"Nothing is impossible ... but carrying out Sept. 11, 2001 is easier than attacking oil installations in the Gulf due to the high security," he told Reuters. "Part of al Qaeda's warfare is psychological and such calls shake markets and countries." Read more

see Oil back above $60