Dogs of war..Part II...or is it III
Explosions Hit Saudi Capital of Riyadh
By HASSAN JAMALI
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Three explosions rocked the Saudi capital late Monday, including one caused when a car packed with explosives crashed into a compound housing Westerners and blew up. There were casualties, Saudi security officials said.
An unidentified Interior Ministry official told the state-run Saudi Press Agency that three explosions occurred, but the report did not give details on the cause or location of the other two blasts.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, currently in Jordan, is scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with leaders of the oil-rich kingdom. He is asking the Saudis for their help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform. Powell has already been in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
A U.S. official traveling with Powell said the secretary will travel to Saudi Arabia as scheduled. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had been told that there were no American casualties in the blasts.
The incident follows a warning issued by the U.S. State Department earlier this month advising Americans to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
A Saudi security official told The Associated Press that a black Chevrolet Caprice sedan crashed into a residential compound in Garnata, an eastern suburb in Riyadh. The officials said the explosion caused a number of injuries.
Witnesses told the AP that the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded.
Police cars and ambulances were seen rushing to the compound, which is owned by Riyadh's deputy governor Abdullah Al-Blaidh and includes several residential complexes housing mainly Westerners and non-Saudis.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born fugitive who heads the al-Qaida terror network, and home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 attack hijackers. In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
Last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that most of the 5,000 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia would leave by the end of the summer. The presence of U.S. troops has been a major irritant to the kingdom's rulers, who face strong anti-American sentiment from the population.
American military presence in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, was among the reasons given by bin Laden for his hatred of the United States. He used it often as his rallying call for Muslims to attack U.S. interests worldwide.
Last week a senior Saudi security official said suspected terrorists were receiving orders directly from Osama bin Laden and had been planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting the royal family as well as American and British interests.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.
On Wednesday, authorities said they foiled plans by at least 19 suspected terrorists to carry out strikes and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in the capital.
All escaped after a gunfight with police.
In remarks published Thursday, Prince Nayef said the men could be linked to bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, which now was ``weak and almost nonexistent.''
Nayef said the men, raised in Afghanistan, included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. ``These men have only one goal in mind: Jihad (holy war) ... They have been brainwashed,'' he said.
Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television Wednesday, and a reward of more than $50,000 has been offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects.
The confiscated weapons included hand grenades, five suitcases of explosives, rifles and ammunition, as well as computers, communications equipment and cash, officials said.
News of the plot came a week after an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
05/12/03 18:35 |
