"Though journalists at the scene were not allowed to enter the compound or take photographs, the indications were that the toll could rise if those still trapped inside the debris succumb to their injuries." More Reports from Saudi Arabia
Saudi Crown Prince Addresses the nation
US Warns of Terror Plans
Against Americans living in Saudi
JEDDAH, 1 May 2003 —Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif said that the government has no knowledge about the contents of a security message issued by the US Embassy in Riyadh yesterday warning that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks against the American community in Saudi Arabia.“There is nothing that currently suggests that something like this is imminent, but given the circumstances and developments taking place something might,” Prince Naif said. “I know nothing of this matter. This is a matter relating to the country concerned and we have not received any information from anyone regarding this matter,” Prince Naif told reporters. The US Embassy advised the American community in Saudi Arabia that it has received information that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks on American interests in Saudi Arabia. The embassy admitted that it had “no information as to the likely target” and added that US citizens in the Kingdom should “take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness.” There are currently between 30,000 and 40,000 Americans living and working in the Kingdom, down from 60,000 a decade ago.
The War Continues.. Terrorism Special Page US citizens in Uganda warned on security
KAMPALA, May 14 -- The United States embassy in Uganda has issued an anti-terror security warning to US citizens in the east African country."We are warning US citizens resident in Uganda that supporters of the Al-Qaeda and other extremists are still active in east Africa," US embassy spokesperson Mary Jeffers was quoted by government-run newspaper New Vision as saying on Wednesday. More
US confusion over Saudi bombing death toll
WASHINGTON: US officials gave widely varying figures on Tuesday for the death toll in a suspected al-Qaeda attack in Saudi Arabia as they emphasised that no definite casualty figure was available.At the top of the range was Vice President Dick Cheney, who cited the attack's body count to emphasise that the war on terror was far from over."Lest any of us think this struggle is over with, all we have to do is contemplate last night's tragic events in Riyadh where some 91 people were killed," Cheney told an audience at the Hudson Institute as he gave an introduction for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. More
US recalls diplomats from Saudi Arabia
WASHINGTON: The United States ordered most US diplomatic personnel home from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, one day after attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in the Saudi capital and detonated multiple suicide car bombs, killing at least 29, including the nine attackers, reported Associated Press. The report said nonessential diplomats and family members were directed to leave Saudi Arabia/ FBI investigators were dispatched to the country to help with the probe of what Saudi officials said was the deadly work of al-Qaeda.
Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden's will
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arab news magazine said a purported will it published Saturday was written late last year by Osama bin Laden, and shows "he's dying or he's going to die soon." U.S. intelligence officials say they have the purported will, but are not able to say if it is genuine. CNN has not been able to verify that the document is bin Laden's will. Full ReportAbdullah receives U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell 91 killed in Saudi suicide bombings: US State Department
A policeman is examine an explosion site.
Riyadh -- 91 people were killed in a series of suicide bombing attacks in the Saudi capital of Riyadh Monday night, including some 10 US citizens, US State Department officials said on Tuesday. One official said the figure is expected to rise. The casualty figure is expected to go up as the Saudi Government has been giving a different figure . The attackers drove, guns blazing, into three guarded housing compounds for western expatriates shortly before midnight and set off huge car bombs.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said that at least 29 people were killed, including nine suicide bombers, and 194 injured in three suicide bombings attacks at foreigners' compounds in Riyadh.The killed included seven Saudis, seven Americans, two Jordanian children, two Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Swiss, in addition to the nine charred bodies believed to be the attackers, the ministry said in a statement.
Seventy Americans employed by the Vinnell Corp., a Virginia company with a contract to train Saudi military and civilian officials, lived in one of the buildings. By chance, 50 of the Americans were on a training exercise and away from the complex. The building was in one of three housing complexes in the Saudi capital that were struck by multiple suicide car bombs Monday night. Attackers shot their way into the compounds and then set off the explosives.
Arab News Exclusive Reports The Villas Were Reduced to a Heap of Rubble
RIYADH, 14 May 2003 — Security at the Al-Hamra compound, site of one of the blasts, was unsatisfactory, Arab News has learned, but the ensuing rescue operation was a model of swiftness and efficiency.
The first explosion at Al-Hamra compound killed 10 people, the second one at Al-Jadawel compound killed two and eight at the Vinnell building, the statement said. Earlier in the day, visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell,who arrived in Riyadh from Amman, said 10 Americans had been killed in the worst terror attacks in the kingdom. Full Report
High Alert in Eastern Province Saeed Haider, Gulf Bureau
DHAHRAN, 14 May 2003 — Security has been beefed up in the Eastern Province after the bombing incident in Riyadh, with security forces patrolling the city and carrying out random checks on highways, streets and markets.
The US Consulate in Dhahran remained closed yesterday as a precautionary measure, and an emergency committee headed by the US ambassador will decide whether to open the consulate and other US missions in the Kingdom today. The children of US diplomats were also advised not to go to school. While life appeared to be normal in the cities of Dammam, Alkhobar and Dhahran, a sense of shock and grief was evident Full Report
Anxious Kin Ring Alarm Bells
ALKHOBAR, 14 May 2003 — Eastern Province residents began receiving telephone calls from worried relatives at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when CNN first carried the story. Due to confusion over the Kingdom’s geography, the callers could not understand how people in Alkhobar could be unaware of the explosions that rocked Riyadh a couple of hours earlier. More
A Saudi policeman passes by a gate damaged in an explosion.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire moments before one of the cars exploded.
One survivor, John Gardiner from Kinghorn, Scotland, told the British Broadcasting Corp. the blasts were "absolutely terrifying.""All the doors came in, the external doors, the internal doors, all the windows, and the next think I knew I was lying on my back in shattered glass," he said.
The blasts tore through multistory apartment buildings and single-family houses. The force of the explosions sheared off the facades of five- and four- story buildings. Heaps of rubble and blocks of upended concrete surrounded twisted steel bars and knocked downed palm trees. Burned-out hulks that had been cars were still in their parking spots; upended furniture and debris littered a pool deck, reported Associated Press News Agency. The truck and a sedan drove up to the gate of the complex at about 11:20 p.m. With a brief burst of gunfire, the men in the two vehicles killed the sentries, then pushed the button that opened the iron gate. The truck drove up to the housing complex and its explosive cargo was detonated.
"The first explosion at Al-Hamra Complex killed ten people, including two Jordanian children, four Saudis, two Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Swiss national. The second explosion, which took place at Eshbilia complex, killed two Saudis. And the third explosion at Finille Complex killed seven Americans and a Saudi national. Nine charred bodies, believed to be the bodies of the terrorists, have been found at the site of the explosions," the SPA report said.
"The official source said that the security officials who were at the scenes of the explosions exchanged fire with the terrorists, which reduced their capacity to cause injury. It said that large quantities of explosives were used in the incidents. ?Investigations are underway to identify the culprits, and disclose their links with the terrorist group whose base was recently discovered by Saudi security officials in Riyadh,? " SPA report said.
Most of the homes in such compounds are large, single-family villas. Behind high walls, Westerners can escape Saudi restrictions such as the requirement that women outside the home wear enveloping robes. Residents tend to work as corporate executives, oil industry professionals and teachers. Two of the complexes hit Monday were named after cities in Spain conquered by the Muslim empire in the 13th century. Al-Hamra is Arabic for Alhambra and Eshbiliya is Seville. The third target is Vinnell.
Powell declared terrorism to be "a threat to the civilized world" in Riyadh while linking the latest assaults to the al-Qaedanetwork led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. The assailants were believed to be linked to the May 6 discovery of a large weapons cache, Prince Nayef, the interior minister, told Saudi newspapers. Nineteen people were being sought and one person surrendered. Nayef told the al-Watan newspaper the suspect had offered "limited information."
Saudi officials said the group - 17 Saudis, a Yemeni, and an Iraqi with Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship - was believed to have received orders directly from Osama bin Laden. They had been planning to use the weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests, officials said.
Suspected Al Qaeeda activists missing in Riyadh since last week. Saudi police have been engaged in a marathon man hunt to trace these people. Some of the people are believed to be behind the suicide bombing.
There were conflicting reports about the death toll. Saudi officials said 29 had died, including nine attackers. A State Department official said 91 had died but later said the actual number was closer to the Saudi figure.
The dead included Mohammed Abdullah al-Blaihed, son of Riyadh deputy governor Abdullah al-Blaihed, who owned one of the devastated compounds, said Hamad al-Otaidi, a spokesman at King Faisal Hospital. Earlier Saudi officials said 194 people were wounded, most of them slightly. At least 40 Americans were wounded, U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan said.
The seven Americans killed lived in a four-story building that was heavily damaged. Seventy Americans employed by the Vinnell Corp., a Virginia company with a contract to train Saudi military and civilian officials, lived in the building. By chance, 50 were away on a training exercise. The attacks were followed by a smaller bombing Tuesday near the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Co., a Saudi-U.S. company. No casualties were reported.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire moments before one of the cars exploded late Monday. One survivor, John Gardiner from Kinghorn, Scotland, told the British Broadcasting Corp. the blasts were "absolutely terrifying."
"All the doors came in, the external doors, the internal doors, all the windows, and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back in shattered glass," he said.
The blast ripped through multistory apartment buildings and single-family houses. Facades of five- and four- story buildings were sheared off. Heaps of rubble and blocks of upended concrete surrounded twisted steel bars and knocked downed palm trees. Burned-out hulks that had been cars were still in their parking spots; upended furniture and debris littered a pool deck.
There was no claim of responsibility. If the al-Qaida connection is confirmed, it would show that his network is still capable of mounting coordinated attacks, even in one of the world's most tightly policed countries.
The suicide bombings occurred during Powell's ongoing Middle East tour, which has taken him to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan. Anti-American sentiment is running high among Arabs because of the US-led war on Iraq, and the US bias in favor of Israel in its 31-month conflicts with Palestinians.
US president condemns bombings in Saudi Arabia
"War on terrorism continues" BushWASHINGTON, May 13 -- US President George W. Bush on Tuesday condemned the bombings in Saudi Arabia, vowing that the United States will find the killers and let them learn "the meaning of American justice." "These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate and the United States will find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice," Bush said in Indianapolis, Indiana.
"Today's attacks in Saudi Arabia, the ruthless murder of American citizens and other citizens, remind us that the war on terror continues." he said. "Anytime anybody attacks our homeland, or our fellow citizens, we will be on the hunt," he said, vowing that the United States "will bring them to justice." According to reports, three deadly overnight bombings took place in separate housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing at least 20 people, including seven Americans. -keralamonitor.com
Britain's think tank warns against backlash of Iraq war
LONDON, May 13 The US military intervention in the Arab world was likely to inflame terrorist motivations, at least in the short term, according to a survey published Tuesday by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think tank.
"This impulse will only be strengthened and prolonged if the USfootprint in the region, enlarged via the Iraq intervention, remains in place in the medium term," the Institute said in its annual book Strategic Survey 2002-2003.
At a press launch for the survey on Tuesday, IISS Mideast experts told reporters that the suicide bomb attacks Monday night against western targets in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh could be the first sign of a terrorist backlash sparked by the US-led war against Iraq.
"The bombing in Riyadh may indicate that the regime change in Iraq in the short term is going to cause a terrorist backlash and be an inspiration for terrorists," said Jonathan Stevenson, editorof this year's Strategic Survey.
Reports from Riyadh said earlier that numerous westerners and Saudis were wounded after up to four explosions occurred in the Saudi capital, with one heard in a residential compound inhabited by Americans.
IISS experts warned that the incident bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and they could be symptomatic of resentment in the Arab world of the US-led military campaign that toppled Iraqi PresidentSaddam Hussein. The attacks emphasized the importance of establishing as soon as possible an interim Iraqi administration that could help bring stability to the country and the whole Mideast region, the expertssaid.
The United States had better to transfer quickly substantial power to an Iraqi administration with the aim of drawing Iraq's various elements into the political process, they argued. A failure to do so might create "violence between different communities and against the Americans," they concluded
Britain warns citizens against nonessential Saudi travel
LONDON, May 13 -- Britain on Tuesday advised its nationals to give up nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia amid security concerns following suicide bomb attacks against Western targets in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh on late Monday.
"Following three suicide bomb attacks in Riyadh on May 12, there remains a high threat of further large or small-scale attacks against Western interests in Saudi Arabia. Terrorist attacks could involve the use of chemical and biological materials," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "We advise British nationals against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia," the statement said.
"If you choose to travel to, or remain in, Saudi Arabia you should take all necessary steps to protect your safety and should make sure you have confidence in your security arrangements," the statement added. Earlier reports quoted US State Department officials as saying that more than 90 people, including 10 to 12 US citizens, were killed in the suicide bombings that rocked three housing compound sin Riyadh.
Germany still threatened by terrorism: minister
BERLIN, May 13- Germany said on Tuesday that it is still threatened by international terrorism despite the decline of the number of members of extremist groups in the country.
The threat to internal security demands highest attention of the government and the public, Minister of Internal Affairs Otto Schily said when introducing a report on constitutional protection. The report showed that the number of members of extremist groups comprising of foreigners fell by some 2,000 to 57,350 last year and most of these members belong to Islamic organizations.
Schily said that the war in Afghanistan had only strongly destroyed the al-Qaeda network, but failed to "make it unable to launch new attacks." This had probably been confirmed by the blasts in Saudi Arabiancapital of Riyadh late Monday night, he said.
The attacks in Riyadh left at least 29 dead, including seven Americans, and 194 injured, according to a statement issued by the Saudi Interior Ministry. Schily said the threat from al-Qaeda could also aim at Germany,besides the United States and Britain
