JEDDAH, (Reuters) – A suicide bomber failed in his  attempt to kill the prince who heads Saudi Arabia’s  anti-terrorism campaign, the first attack on a member of the  royal family since the start of a wave of violence by al Qaeda  six years ago.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the deputy interior minister and  son of the man thought likely to be the next crown prince, was  meeting well-wishers on Thursday when a man blew himself up, a  ministry spokesman said. The prince was not seriously hurt.

“The attack indicates that the threat is out there waiting  to happen — sometimes at closer range than you would think,”  said one Western diplomat in Saudi, who declined to be named.

“The royals will have plenty of reasons to worry in a  country where weapons apparently find easy entry from porous  borders to the north from Iraq or the south from Yemen.”

As security chief, Prince Mohammed is one of the most  powerful men in the kingdom and is credited with the  government’s success in crushing the violence.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest petroleum exporter and a  key U.S. ally in the Middle East, was forced to confront its own  role in rising militancy at home and abroad when its nationals  turned out to be behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United  States.
The mastermind of those attacks, al Qaeda leader Osama bin  Laden, was born in Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi arm of the  group, claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing attempt,   according to a message posted on Islamist internet forums and  translated by SITE Intelligence Group.

Interior ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said security  measures would not be increased after the apparant breach, which  occured after the prince ordered guards not to search the  militant, who had insisted he was giving himself up.

“The security will not be heightened more than it is at the  moment. We have always been saying that we expect (such acts)  and act as though they may happen at any moment.”

Royals in Saudi Arabia are obliged to receive visitors  during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The Saudi official news agency said the bomber, whom it did  not name, was the only casualty. The attack took place in Prince  Mohammed’s private office in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

The incident serves to underscore the possibility of attacks  in the kingdom itself. Saudi officials have expressed concern  that neighbouring Yemen, embroiled in a conflict that has  claimed hundreds of lives, could become a staging ground.