A senior Saudi official said the compound was guarded by dozens of Saudi soldiers but that the attackers apparently were disguised as security forces and may have duped the guards. "They appeared as if they were going to reinforce the security," the official said in a telephone interview.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attackers also "had people on the ridge outside . . . taking shots at the compound and the guards shooting back. There was then a truck disguised in security forces colors that got into the gates, shot up the gates and detonated."
I am sorry about your eye infection.
I can't remember if you heard about arrests for the Al Rashid rocket attacks.
I hope it did our soldiers and Air Force guys some good who dropped the bombs and rounded up some bad guys.I can't imagine how much they need to make someone pay for all our recent casualties.
I just heard on TV there are jihadists coming into SA.The news "breaks" will be the only news we get for awhile.
From the link just above... (so they may have totally got it wrong and screwed up)
The bulk of those injured in this morning's bombing may have been Arabs, including Lebanese, Egyptians and Syrians, according to interviews with residents of the area by local media. Although Muhaya was once predominantly occupied by Westerners, now about "95 percent are Arabs -- Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Egyptians," the Saudi official said.
This has GOT to be my worst typo to date.
Yahoo Group is a love level Mujahideen = Yahoo Group is a LOW level Mujahideen
I think I need to make coffee :P
Yikes! I didn't find it. I just entered :))
Look at the very bottom of my post and it gives the reference to the post to which I replied. In this case, it was No. 455.
Hmmm. I'm a little confused here. Perhaps you were replying to someone else. I didn't say anything about AQ. I was replying to someone who was talking about the frequency of eclipses and mentioned that the islamo-wackos (not necessarily AQ) seem to place significance on this particular ramadan because their are two eclipses happening.
That is interesting. But, maybe they are "changing schedules" just to keep whoever guessing.
I heard some arab interviewed who said it was hard to believe especially during Ramadan.They never let Ramadan stop them..why bother to tut tut over it.
UPDATE
Title : At least five killed in Riyadh blast, 99 wounded: senior official
By :
Date : 09 November 2003 1157 hrs (SST)
URL :
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/56336/1/.html RIYADH : At least five people, four Arabs and one Indian, were killed in the bombing which rocked a residential compound west of Riyadh at midnight Saturday, a senior Saudi official told AFP at the site of the blast.
"Three Lebanese, one Sudanese and one Indian" were killed in the blast at the al-Muhaya complex, the official said early Sunday, requesting anonymity.
"So far, 99 people are known to have been wounded," he added.
Earlier, a senior security official said that an initial toll indicated that at least one woman was killed and 78 people were wounded in the bombing.
"An initial toll indicates that one Arab woman was killed and a total of 78 people were injured," the official told AFP as rescue workers continued to dig in the wreckage of villas at the stricken compound.
While Saudi authorities and residents said only one compound was bombed, the US State Department said three residential compounds housing Westerners in the Saudi capital were hit by explosions and gunfire.
"We have initial reports that there were explosions and gunfire at three compounds in Riyadh that house Westerners," State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt told AFP.
"At the present time, we are unaware of any casualties."
The Saudi interior ministry said a "terrorist bombing" rocked the al-Muhaya compound west of Riyadh, at a time when many people would have been awake following dawn to dusk fasts for the holy month of Ramadan.
It did not immediately provide details of the attack, which followed close on the heels of US and other Western warnings of a possibly imminent terror strike in Saudi Arabia.
But a security officer at the scene told AFP Sunday said the blast was the result of a suicide car bombing.
"A car laden with explosives succeeded in penetrating the fortified compound surrounded by cement blocks," the officer said, requesting anonymity.
"The car blew up inside the compound," he added, but could not tell if one suicide bomber or more were involved.
Gunfire was heard before and after the blast, said residents of the compound.
"A terrorist bombing occurred at the al-Muhaya residential compound west of Riyadh tonight," said an interior ministry official, cited by the official SPA news agency.
"Further details will be released later," he said.
The compound, a former US Marine base, is located in the Wadi Laban suburb, behind the al-Yamama royal palace.
At least 100 people, mostly children, were wounded when the bomb exploded, the compound's manager told AFP.
Major hospitals in Riyadh were put on a state of alert.
"There are no less than 100 wounded, most of them children," al-Muhaya manager Hanadi al-Khandakli said, adding she could not immediately tell whether there were any fatalities.
Khandaqli, who was in the compound at the time of the attack, said "there was gunfire followed by a blast, and a second blast minutes later."
She 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. Other inhabitants are Arabs, including Saudis.
Dozens of ambulances and vehicles carrying special forces raced to the site of the blast in Wadi Laban, some five kilometers (three miles) from the Diplomatic Quarter housing foreign embassies and diplomats' residences.
Security forces closed off the Diplomatic Quarter and patrolled the area as a helicopter hovered over the stricken site, an AFP correspondent reported.
The Omani assistant secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for military affairs, General Ali al-Maamari, lives in the complex but was not there at the time of the blast.
Gunfire was heard inside the compound more than two hours after the blast, an AFP photographer said. Arabic television showed images of buildings in the compound still on fire and wounded flooding hospitals.
The powerful blast was heard across central Riyadh and buildings shook from the explosion, residents said.
The blast came amid US and other Western warnings of possibly imminent terror attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Thirty-five people died in triple suicide bombings against residential compounds in Riyadh on May 12, prompting Saudi authorities to launch a massive crackdown on suspected Islamist extremists which netted hundreds of militants.
US missions in Saudi Arabia were closed for security reviews Saturday. The United States, Britain, Canada and Australia have all advised their citizens to defer non-essential travel to the oil-rich kingdom.
"The embassy continues to receive credible information the terrorists in Saudi Arabia have moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks in the kingdom," the US embassy had said in a recorded "warden" message.
In the United States, media reported that operatives of the al-Qaeda network headed by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden may be planning to hijack cargo jets in Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean and use them to attack power plants and other critical infrastructure.
Britain on Saturday also pinpointed Bahrain and Qatar as countries where there was "a high threat from terrorism" against Western targets.
- AFP
I clicked on the link but got no where as they want cookies and I only share my cookies with a select few :-)
Was it the one that was the "second call to get out of dodge"?