17 die in Riyadh suicide bombing
* Pakistanis, 4 Americans and 6 Canadians among 122 injured
RIYADH: Seventeen people, including five children, died and 122 were wounded in a midnight suicide bombing that ripped through a residential compound west of the Saudi capital, the interior ministry announced Sunday.
Among the dead from Saturday night’s blast were 1 Saudi, 1 Sudanese, and 7 Lebanese, 4 Egyptian and 4 unidentified nationals, a ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency. The 122 wounded included Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Romanians, Saudis, Sri Lankans, Sudanese, Syrians, and Turks, as well as Americans and Canadians, some of whom were of Arab descent. Thrity-six children were also among the injured.
Four Americans of Arab origin and six Canadians including one naturalised are among the wounded, according to a source at the hospital where they were treated. An official said Saturday night’s carnage bore the hallmarks of the Al Qaeda network.
“The method in which the bombing was executed is similar to that used in the May 12 bombings” of three residential compounds,” the Saudi official told AFP, requesting anonymity. ‘This confirms that those who carried out the bombing belong to the Al Qaeda movement,” he said.
“We will get the perpetrators no matter how long it takes,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef said. Witnesses said the blast was the result of a suicide car bombing, carried out with a vehicle apparently stolen from security forces. “A car laden with explosives succeeded in penetrating the fortified compound surrounded by cement blocks,” a security officer said. An AFP correspondent at the scene saw the wreckage of the jeep used in the bombing, which opened a crater around two meters deep in the ground. The explosion wrecked at least 15 cars, including one with diplomatic license plates.
Compound owner Mohammad Saleh al-Muhaya said gunmen fired on guards from a hill overlooking the complex as the apparently stolen police jeep drove in. “A Sudanese guard was shot dead,” he said. Manager Hanadi al-Khandakli said the complex comprised 200 villas, four of which are inhabited by Western families, including two German and one French. Residents said the fourth family was British.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he believed a deadly explosion in a Riyadh compound was the work of Al Qaeda terrorists and that more attacks could be on the way. He arrived in the capital Riyadh from Iraq on Sunday. President Bush, in a telephone call with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, vowed to stand with the country against terrorism.
dailytimes.com.pk |
