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Powell: 13 Killed in Saudi Capital Blasts
By ADNAN MALIK
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in the Saudi capital then set off suicide car bombs, killing at least 13 foreigners, officials reported Tuesday. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the coordinated terror strike had ``the earmarks of al-Qaida.''
Powell, who arrived Tuesday on a previously scheduled visit despite the attacks, said at least 10 Americans were among the dead after being briefed by U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan. Phillipine authorities reported two deaths, and Australian officials reported one.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, on its Web site, quoted Niels Joergen Secher, a Danish doctor at Riyadh's King Faisal hospital, as saying that between 40 to 50 bodies were brought to his hospital. No other details available.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said overall casualties appeared to be in the hundreds and that several members of the Saudi National Guard died in the attacks. He also said British, German, French, Australian and other Arab citizens were among the dead and wounded.
The attacks late Monday were followed by a smaller bombing Tuesday near the headquarters of a Saudi-U.S. company. No casualties were reported in that bombing.
Saudi officials told The Associated Press at least 50 wounded people were taken to the National Guard Hospital. Other hospitals reported at least 10 injured.
A guard at one of the housing compounds in the northeastern section of the city was quoted by the Saudi paper al-Watan as saying that seven cars exploded there, all apparently carrying suicide bombers. At least three bodies could be seen lying on the ground at the compound Tuesday morning.
Witnesses at the al-Blaidh compound said the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded.
Powell was greeted on his arrival by Prince Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, who expressed his sorrow and vowed to cooperate with the United States in fighting terrorism.
``It is no consolation, but these things happen everywhere,'' Saud said. ``It should increase our efforts and should make us not hesitate to take whatever measures that are needed to oppose these people, who know only hate, only killing.''
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Powell said the bombings ``had the earmarks of al-Qaida.'' Al-Qaida is known for suicide bombings and for coordinated actions such as the Sept. 11 attacks and the 1998 simultaneous car bombings outside American embassies in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania that killed some 230 people.
An intelligence official in Washington said information from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida had been planning a strike in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites.
The blasts came as the United States is pulling out most of the 5,000 troops it had based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence fueled anti-American sentiment. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most would be gone by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden has repeatedly railed against the presence of what he calls ``infidel'' troops on Muslim holy land.
The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, told local newspapers the assailants were believed to be linked to the May 6 discovery of a large weapons cache.
The Saudi government was seeking 19 suspects in that case - including 17 Saudis, a Yemeni, and an Iraqi with Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship - that it believed were receiving orders directly from bin Laden. The government said the group had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests.
The wealthy gated communities attacked Monday were all in the same part of the city where the May 6 weapons seizure was made and house corporate executives and other professionals from many countries.
State Department officials said the American school in Riyadh would be closed Tuesday and advised Americans to remain at home until further notice. Earlier this month, it had advised Americans against traveling to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
Some 35,000 U.S. citizens live in Saudi Arabia.
Justice Department and FBI officials had no immediate indication that other attacks might be planned against U.S. interests at home or abroad.
Prince Nayef told the al-Watan newspaper that one of the 19 people sought in the cache case handed himself in - it was unclear when - and was being interrogated for information about Monday's explosions. So far he had offered ``limited information,'' Nayef told the paper.
A previously unknown Saudi group, the Mujahedeen in the Arabian Peninsula, had linked itself to the cache found May 6 and over the weekend vowed on an Internet site to strike American targets worldwide. It was not clear whether the explosions in Riyadh were linked to the group.
British telecommunications executive John Crossley was knocked out by the force of a blast and suffered cuts from glass from his shattered windows. He was quoted as telling the Los Angeles Times that other villas were leveled by the force of the blast.
Crossley, speaking to the newspaper in a telephone interview, said a carload of men in a car shot their way into the compound. He said guards gave chase through the streets until the attackers' car exploded.
``The fact that they have attacked three compounds in a coordinated way sends a message to the Western community that we are not safe here. It's like they're saying, 'We can get you any time, anywhere,''' Crossley was quoted as saying.
The small blast went off early Tuesday near the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Company, also known as Siyanco. The company is a jointly owned by Frank E. Basil Inc., of Washington, and local Saudi partners, officials said.
Americans have been frequent targets in Saudi Arabia.
Last month, an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
In 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S.-run military training facility in Riyadh. Seven people died, including five American advisers to the Saudi National Guard. The Islamic Movement for Change and two smaller groups in the region claimed responsibility.
05/13/03 07:24
OR,...The BBC's Report.......
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