By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Aljazeera reports today that ”Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.”

The Prince, the deputy interior minister and the man who heads the kingdom's crackdown on the group, survived the attack last Friday. Al-Qaeda enjoys safe-havens in Yemen. Will we see focus shift to Yemen and Somalia soon?

Stability and security in Afghanistan is vital to America’s national interests, the war “of necessity” says the Commander-in-Chief. But the combined instability of Yemen and its neighbor across the Gulf of Aden, Somalia, seems a more complex, effective and formidable base of operations for Al-Qaeda. The region’s geographic position is daunting: a threat to the oil we require and the vital shipping lanes for the commodity.

Will the Saudi government lure us away from the campaign in Afghanistan?

How long before our base in Djibouti comes under attack?

Who is helping the government of Yemen fight their counterinsurgency?

News has been sparse from Yemen and Somalia recently. But this incident, this attack on the Saudi Royal Family will reverberate here soon.