Posted on 11/09/2003 2:05:11 AM PST by The Raven
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital Saturday night, killing at least two people and wounding 86, in what a government official said was a suicide car bombing.
The attack came a day after the U.S. Embassy warned that terror attacks could be imminent in the tense Gulf kingdom, and America's three diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed Saturday as a result.
Just before the midnight blasts, an unknown number of attackers broke into the upscale compound of about 200 villas, a Saudi official said, and gunfire was heard.
An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press early Sunday the attack was a suicide car bombing, and that two security guards were killed and 86 people wounded. The official said he believed it was carried out by al-Qaida because of similarities to a May 12 attack in the capital that killed 35 people.
In this image made from video, the smouldering rubble after an explosion at a residential compound is seen in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via Saudi TV)
However, immediately after the explosion, there were widely conflicting reports of the number of dead. An official at a Riyadh hospital said dozens of people were killed, but, when contacted again, said only that some people were dead.
A U.S. Embassy official said one American was wounded and one registered American was unaccounted for. The Embassy was to remain closed Sunday and U.S. diplomats will restrict their movements to the diplomatic quarter.
Diplomats and officials said most of the residents of the compound's 200 villas were Lebanese. Some Saudis also live there, plus a few German, French and Italian families.
Officials at the King Khaled Specialist Hospital and the King Faisal Special Hospital & Research Center said the two hospitals received 38 wounded people.
Flames could be seen still burning at the compound several hours after the explosion.
In this image made from video, an injured woman is seen at the hospital after an explosion in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via Al Arabiya)
State-run Saudi TV aired live footage from the devastated section of the residential compound, showing collapsed buildings, piles of rubble, twisted metal and debris spread over a large area.
TV footage showed a large crater, apparently gouged out by an explosion, as emergency workers poured over the bomb blast site, which security forces had sealed off.
Huge flames were seen leaping into the night sky as helicopters hovered overhead, beaming search lights down onto the bomb ravaged area.
A woman living in the compound told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that "there is lot of blood" at the scene of the explosions.
In this image made from video, rescue workers search for survivors after an explosion in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via Saudi TV)
"I am extremely terrified; I am really scared. I felt it was an earthquake," the woman said without identifying herself.
"Lots of houses are damaged, windows shattered," she said, adding that police sirens wailed throughout the compound. "Ambulances were picking up lots of people. It looks like there are lots of people who died."
The Saudi government official said the explosions took place in the Muhaya compound. He said the attackers traded fire with the guards and he said there were apparently three explosions.
He said most of the wounded were believed to be children because their parents were out shopping during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The May 12 attack on Western residential compounds in Riyadh was blamed on al-Qaida, and Saudi authorities have arrested hundreds of suspected militants throughout the country since. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudis.
In this image made from video, a rescue worker observes the smouldering rubble after an explosion at a residential compound in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via SAUDI TV)
In the May attack, gunmen also broke into residential compounds before explosions were set off.
In the latest attack, diplomats reported one big explosion about midnight, followed by two smaller ones 15 seconds apart. The streets were crowded with late night crowds because of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day and have dinners and parties late into the night.
Dozens of police cars and ambulances raced toward the site of the blasts, sirens wailing, and helicopters hovered overhead. Traffic was tied up across the city.
Hanadi al-Ghandaki, manager of the targeted compound, told al-Arabiya that about 100 people were wounded, mostly children "because most adults were outside the compound at that time." She did not elaborate.
Rabie Hadeka, a resident inside the compound, told Al-Arabiya that "about 20 to 30 people have been killed and 50 to 60 injured."
In this image made from video, an injured man lays on a stretcher in a hospital after an explosion at a residential compound in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via Al Arabiya)
She told Al-Arabiya that "shattered glass was spread everywhere after we heard three very strong explosions."
Police said the explosions were three miles from an entrance to the Saudi capital's diplomatic quarter.
"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 in a telephone interview.
"I heard screams of the children and women. I don't know what happened to my friends, if anybody was injured," he said. "All the glass in my house were shattered."
Almost all the foreign embassies in Riyadh - including the U.S. Embassy - and most diplomats' homes are inside the diplomatic quarter, an isolated neighborhood whose entrances are guarded. But there are several residential compounds housing Western business people relatively near the diplomatic quarter.
A Western diplomat said he got a call from a friend who reported seeing smoke rising from a building on the other side of the diplomatic quarter near an area where the palaces of the royal family's senior princes are located.
In this image made from video, an injured man is helped by medics in a hospital after an explosion at a residential compound in Riyadh on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003. Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital on Saturday night, and a government official said the blast came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards. (AP Photo/APTN via Al Arabiya)
The city's main palaces, including those of senior princes and the king's sprawling Riyadh residence, are just outside the east side of the diplomatic quarter. Each of the palaces is behind a high wall, with automatic gates for cars to drive through, and guards.
The extremists are doing this to prove that the Saudi Royal family is incapable of 'defending the holy city' and to that end, the terrorists hope to bring down the Saudi government to replace it with an islamic fundamentalist state.
These "victims" are taught from birth to kill my children and grandchildren or to tolerate the atrocities of Islam. I have no compassion for those who subsribe to this culture.
Any suggestions?
Carolyn
Right. The latest Reuters reports indicates that dozens were killed and that some were probably Palestinians. If I was a Palestinian Arab father, taking the family off to SA sounds a lot better than keeping them at home so the kids can be recruited for you know what.
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