THE COUNTER-TERROR BLOG REPORTS:

Only days after Al-Qaida announced the completion of its latest campaign of violence aimed at avenging alleged “massacres” of Sunni Muslims in Tel Afar by the U.S. and Iraqi government, there are growing indications that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his Al-Qaida acolytes may be facing the most serious political and operational challenges they have encountered since they first joined the anti-coalition insurgency in mid-2003. The deadly glut of suicide bombings that began on September 8 has undoubtedly caused destruction and chaos–but militants were neither able to undermine the anti-insurgent operation in Tel Afar nor deter Iraqi government efforts to formulate a constitution.

Read the whole thing, and note the Saudi angle.