Airline Suspends Saudi Flights
LONDON (Aug. 13) - British Airways on Wednesday suspended flights to Saudi Arabia due to heightened security concerns.
Britain's Department for Transport said it had received ''credible intelligence of a serious threat to U.K. aviation interests in Saudi Arabia.'' It did not elaborate.
The announcement came two days after Saudi officials said they broke up a terror cell plotting an attack on a British target in the kingdom.
''As a matter of precaution we have decided to suspend all flights to Saudi Arabia for the time being,'' said Geoff Want, the airline's director of safety and security.
The suspension followed discussions Wednesday with the government transport department, said the airline, which normally operates four flights a week to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and four a week to Jiddah.
On Monday, Saudi police arrested 10 militants who allegedly belonged to a terrorist cell planning to attack a British target, according to a Saudi government official who did not identify the target. The Saudi government has been cracking down on Islamic militants since May 12 suicide attacks in Riyadh killed 26 people and nine attackers.
Saudi police have stepped up efforts to crush networks of al-Qaida, the terror network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and the Riyadh bombings.
Britain's Foreign Office has warned against travel to the kingdom except on essential business. In its latest travel advisory posted Aug. 6, the Foreign Office noted the May 12 attacks in Riyadh. ''Further large or small scale attacks against Western interests in Saudi Arabia remain likely,'' it said.
On May 15, The British government imposed a ban on commercial flights to Kenya because of a ''credible'' terrorist threat in the East African nation, the scene of past attacks blamed on al-Qaida. That was lifted June 26, after security in Nairobi had improved and British Airways resumed its flights soon after.
Saudi Arabia relies greatly on its population of 6 million expatriate workers, including about 35,000 Americans and about 30,000 Britons, in its communications, power, technology, banking and other sectors. The kingdom counts on many U.S. experts for its oil industry.
The Foreign Office said Wednesday it would be ''drawing the British Airways announcement to the attention of the British community in Saudi Arabia.''
Flight suspensions are not unprecedented.
The British government banned commercial flights to Kenya on May 15 because of a ''credible'' terrorist threat in the country. That was lifted June 26, after security in Nairobi had improved and British Airways resumed its flights soon after.
AP-NY-08-13-03 1056EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
An attack 15 miles south of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, killed one U.S. soldier and wounded a second Wednesday when their four-vehicle convoy hit a roadside bomb, according to Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division.
The military also reported a soldier killed and two wounded in a bomb attack Tuesday near Taji, 12 miles north of the capital. The attack was in the same region where an oil pipeline fire sent flames 200 feet into the air.
It was unclear whether Tuesday's fire was the work of saboteurs. Many pipelines across Iraq have been hit by guerrillas seeking to destabilize U.S. reconstruction efforts.
The military also reported killing two Iraqis in separate incidents in the Baqouba region, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. Aberle said the two were killed after firing on U.S. troops.
In the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Wednesday, several thousand people demonstrated against the U.S. occupation. They shouted anti-American slogans, claiming that American forces in a helicopter tore an Islamic banner from a telecommunications tower. There was no violence.
''We're peaceful people, but one edict (from the imams) and the entire American Army will become our prisoner,'' said Hassan Azab, a member of the district council. Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, is a Shiite Muslim stronghold in the otherwise Sunni Muslim-dominated captal.
Officials at the 4th Infantry Division said they had released 10 men detained Tuesday in a sweep through the outskirts of Tikrit, but four remained in custody.
The military has not made public the names of those held but said they include a Republican Guard corps-level chief of staff, a Republican Guard division commander and a paymaster for the Fedayeen militia.
All those detained were members of a family described as a pillar of support for the ousted regime, said U.S. Lt. Col. Steve Russell.
''They were trying to support the remnants of the former regime by organizing attacks, through funding and by trying to hide former regime members,'' he said.
Also Wednesday, the U.S.-led coalition said it had sent in 6.6 million gallons of gasoline, much of it to southern Iraq. Fuel and power shortages had been particularly acute in the southern city of Basra, where weekend protests left at least three people dead.
''There is no shortage of petrol and we are able to fully meet the demand,'' coalition spokesman Charles Heatly said.
The American administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, met Wednesday with the U.S.-picked Governing Council about local efforts on restarting the shattered economy and creating jobs, Heatly said.
Bremer also urged the 25-member council to submit names for the so-called ''de-Baathification council,'' which is charged with purging government offices of Saddam's Baath Party.
Heatly said the coalition has fulfilled a number of goals, including establishment of the Governing Council, which on Monday appointed a committee to study ways of writing a democratic constitution.
The spokesman said the benchmark for the departure of U.S.-led forces ''remains having Iraqi people write a new constitution for this country and having it approved in a referendum, holding democratic elections and then hand over power to a sovereign, elected Iraqi government.''
AP-NY-08-13-03 1251EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. |
