Terrorist Attacks on the Energy Sector as a Strategy of Al Qaeda in the Middle East and North Africa

In: Obrana a strategie: Defence & strategy, Band 16, Heft 2, S. 063-082

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship of the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda to issue of the attacks focused on energy sector and their specific manifestations in the Middle East and North Africa. The first aim is to analyze the importance that al-Qaeda attaches to the attacks targeted at the energy sector. The second aim is to describe the main forms, examples, goals and motives of the attacks aimed at the energy sector realized by al-Qaeda in selected countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Syria and Yemen. The third aim is to analyze impact of al-Qaeda attacks against the energy industry and infrastructure on the energy security.