At least 10 reported dead in Saudi car bombing
Witnesses say dozens more hurt in attack on government building
BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 8:47 a.m. ET April 21, 2004RIYADH,
msnbc.msn.com
Saudi Arabia - At least ten people were killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb explosion that targeted a government security building in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, witnesses said.
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The witnesses, cited in a Reuters report, said they saw 10 people killed and dozens of wounded being carried into ambulances after the blast wrecked a government building housing Saudi security forces.
It was not immediately clear whether more than one car bomb was detonated.
Witnesses said the explosion or explosions, which occurred about 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), shattered windows and damaged walls in surrounding buildings. Fire brigades worked to extinguish the fire that engulfed the General Security building. "
The front of a building is blown off and smoke is still rising," a Reuters correspondent said from the scene.
Booby-trapped SUVs
The explosions came only days after Saudi authorities announced they had seized three booby-trapped SUVs that were loaded with a 3 tons of explosives and had apparently been abandoned by militants involved in a shootout with security forces.
Eight suspected al-Qaida members also were arrested, but some suspects escaped and it was feared that the arrests did not thwart a suicide bomb plot that was in the final stages.
Saudi investigators subsequently discovered detailed suicide car- and truck-bomb attack plans, in which one vehicle would ram and destroy the front security gate of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, clearing the way for a second, larger truck bomb that would then drive through the breach onto the embassy grounds where it would be detonated.
After the arrests, the United States ordered the departure of nonessential U.S. government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia. It also urged private citizens to leave the kingdom, and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued an advisory warning of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia."
Two attacks last year
Last year, the Saudi capital suffered two major attacks by suicide bombers driving vehicles filled with explosives. A total of 51 people were killed in the May and November bombings, including the assailants.
The Saudis pursued terrorists and Islamic extremists vigorously after those attacks, arresting hundreds of people.
The attacks were blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, the network accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, strikes in the United States. |
