Riyadh’s Night of Terror

Arab News ^ | Sunday, 9, November, 2003 | Raid Qusti

[swilhelm73]

RIYADH, 9 November 2003 — Terrorists struck in the heart of the capital late last night, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

At least one, and perhaps as many as three, explosions rocked a residential compound in western Riyadh. Eyewitnesses reported one big explosion, followed by two smaller ones 15 seconds apart. Smoke could be seen rising from the area of the blast. The streets were crowded when the blasts took place with late-night shoppers because of Ramadan.

At least 50 people were injured in the explosion. “So far there are 50 injured,” Health Minister Hamad Al-Manie told Saudi TV.

“They are in hospitals all over the capital,” he added.

A US Embassy spokesperson said the attack targeted the B2 compound, which is in the Nakheel neighborhood near the Muhaya shopping center. It is a residential compound, which houses mainly Saudis and a few foreigners, mostly Italians and Germans. The compound comprises 200 villas.

Rabie Hadeka, a resident inside the targeted compound, told Al-Arabiya TV that “about 20 to 30 people have been killed and 50 to 60 injured.”

A US official was quoted by Fox News as saying that up to two dozen people were killed.

“Around 10 buildings collapsed and shattered glass was spread everywhere after we heard three very strong explosions,” Hadeka told Al-Arabiya in a telephone interview.

“A huge explosion blew out the windows. I saw a lot of people injured and I believe there are a lot of people dead,” Bassem Al-Hirani told Al-Arabiya.

The Interior Ministry confirmed the blasts at Al-Muhaya compound. “A terrorist bombing occurred at the Al-Muhaya residential compound west of Riyadh tonight,” said a ministry spokesman.

Residents reported having heard gunshots being fired before and after the blasts. A large fire was raging in the affected compound.

“We heard a very strong explosion and we saw the fire,” Bassem Al-Hourani, who said he was a resident at the targeted compound, told Al-Arabiya.

“I heard screams of the children and women. I don’t know what happened to my friends or whether any of them was injured,” he said. “All the glass in my house was shattered.”

Ali, a Saudi national, was out on Takhassusi St. purchasing roasted coffee for his home when he heard a massive explosion followed by the building shaking like an earthquake. “I immediately came out to see my family who were in the car and very upset. Everybody was running out of shops and the storekeepers were locking their doors and pulling down their shutters. I saw police cars driving toward the Makkah Highway. I tracked them and found that about 15 police cars had closed the access to the Diplomatic Quarters. I doubled back and that’s when I saw the huge cloud of smoke about 5 kilometers from the gates to the DQ. I dropped my family at home and tried to go out again to Panda superstore near King Faisal Specialist Hospital to get groceries but was turned away.”

About two dozen ambulances were seen racing toward the scene, sirens wailing. Special security forces were out in the streets in full force and had ringed the Diplomatic Quarters. Traffic was tied up across the city.

Police said the explosions were five kilometers (three miles) from one of the entrances to the capital’s Diplomatic Quarters.

Emergency was declared in all Riyadh hospitals. Hospital sources reported receiving up to 30 victims.

Rescue efforts were hampered by a mass of curious onlookers who rushed to the scene. Police were seen using force to disperse them.

The blast occurred nearly six months after triple suicide bombings at Riyadh housing compounds on May 12 killed 35 people, including nine Americans. Saudi Arabia blamed these explosions on the Al-Qaeda network. Diplomats estimate there are about 35,000 US and up to 30,000 British citizens in the Kingdom.

The US Embassy in Riyadh said Friday it had received “credible information that terrorists in Saudi Arabia have moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks in the kingdom.”

[onedoug]

Reaping what their filthy princes have sown.

God Bless the innocents. Their loved ones might take some solace though, in that we're really going to win this thing.

[Ophiucus]

Puzzling. Al Qaeda is coming close to biting the hand that feeds them. Even if foreign targets were intended, this strikes close to the biggest Saudi Al Qaeda supporters.

[Ingtar]

This is but the first leg of the tripod (lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, red moon). I suspect our Islamofacist friends have more up their sleeves.

[WackyKat]

Looks like western intelligence was right to give those warnings.

[blam]

MSNBC just reported that one American is missing and one is injured.

[swilhelm73]

Saudi Arabia has been torn between terrorist supporting and opposing factions for some time.

There solution was to buy Osama off by allowing the pro faction to fund him as long as he targetted the west.

My take on recent events is that with the liberation of Iraq we've forced the Saudis to end that arrangement.

[Pikamax]

I think there is some family backstabbing, a civil war brewing.

[Hunble]

Arabs killing Arabs.

It does break my heart to watch people being murdered. However, nobody can stop the violence in the Middle East, until the Arab people unite together and put and end to it.

Perhaps today's murder of innocent Arab lives will motivate the population toward ending this violence.

[river rat]

I doubt it...
Their hatred of America and the Jews is greater than their love for their own children.....

I'm afraid, that like cockroaches or vermin.....they will have to be taken to near extinction before they see the error of their ways...

Semper Fi

[Hunble]

I hope and wish that you are wrong.

Unfortunately, history is on your side.

[Arkinsaw]

Puzzling. Al Qaeda is coming close to biting the hand that feeds them. Even if foreign targets were intended, this strikes close to the biggest Saudi Al Qaeda supporters.

The reason the Saudis have been supporting the terrorists is because they caved after the Khobar Towers bombing. Khobar Towers was not aimed at us, it was a demonstration for the Saudi rulers. A demonstration that the terrorists could hit in Riyadh at will. The whole deal was set up by Iran. The cowed Saudis made a deal and refused to let us investigate there and started paying off the terrorists protection money and looking the other way. The terrorists generally left them alone after that. The Saudi rulers are essentially cowards who do the bidding of whoever they are most afraid of.

It looks like either the deal is off or they thought the Saudis needed reminding again.

[WackyKat]

I'm afraid, that like cockroaches or vermin.....they will have to be taken to near extinction before they see the error of their ways...

Funny, no matter how much I spray the huge cockroaches that get in my house, they never seem to learn!

Then again, they have been around for 400 million years and I'm sure they will survive us, so I guess I shouldn't criticize them.

[MinuteGal]

I think your post # 8 may be very, very close to the truth.

Some of the multitudes of competing princes may be engaged in an inner-family power struggle and are making themselves known with a little action.

Leni

[Billthedrill]

Interesting. The target isn't obviously American or even Western. This may - MAY - represent the stirrings of a fundamentalist hand in the succession within the monarchy. The Wahhabis were, in fact, largely responsible for the accession to the throne of the family of Saud; they've been the power behind the throne ever since. If this is such a manifestation (and it's only a suggestion on my part) then things may soon get very ugly indeed in Riyadh. There are already signs that the intelligence services are conducting a nasty little internecine war even involving members of the royal family. Were real fundamentalists to topple the existing government the U.S. intervention in Iraq will look like a minor matter. In fact, it has been suggested that freeing Iraq from Saddam was, in part, a measure to guard against the potential complications of just such an eventuality.

[Clintonfatigued]

You said it very well. The deaths and destruction were a tragedy. But maybe some good will come out of this: the Saudis will finally open their eyes and realize what they're dealing with. If the wealthy Saudi aristocrats would cut off the extremeists they've been subsidizing and tacitly bribing, Al Queida and their ilk would have a much harder time funding attacks and hiding out.

[11B3]

As usual, my friend, you're right on the money there.

[fourdeuce82d]

Puzzling. Al Qaeda is coming close to biting the hand that feeds them. Even if foreign targets were intended, this strikes close to the biggest Saudi Al Qaeda supporters.

Nothing puzzling at all. Obviously the Zionist Pig Dogs, in cahoots with the Grassy Knoll Gang, and organized by the Alien Abducted Ghost of Elvis perpetrated this attack to besmirch the name of the Innocent Osamma... /Sarcasm

[bonesmccoy]

what is the likelihood of replacing the Ssudi monarchy with a democratically elected, representative gov't?

[bonesmccoy]

Is it possible that civil war and gov't instability in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is helpful in a geopolitical sense?

After all, what other nation has generated as much anti-Israeli sentiment?

Probably Syria... but wouldn't Saudi Arabia run a second?