Posted on 04/21/2004 7:13:56 AM PDT by Pikamax
Car bomb kills at least 10 in Saudi Wed 21 April, 2004 14:44
By Dominic Evans and Fahd al-Frayyan
RIYADH (Reuters) - At least 10 people have been killed and dozens wounded by a car bomb that destroyed a Saudi security service building in the capital, witnesses say.
Officials in Riyadh described it as a "terrorist attack" and Arab television said the body of suicide bomber had been found. One Saudi source said five car bomb attempts had been foiled in the past week but this, the sixth, got past tight security.
"The front of a building is blown off and smoke is still rising," a Reuters correspondent said from outside the building, which housed administrative offices for the security forces.
People on the scene said they saw 10 bodies and dozens of wounded being carried into ambulances. Fires raged long after the blast, which left a deep crater and a street carpeted in debris from the shattered six-storey building.
"We believe it is a terrorist attack," a Saudi Interior Ministry source told Reuters. He said a car packed with explosives blew up in al-Murabaa district.
The kingdom, a key U.S. ally and the world's largest oil exporter, is battling a tide of Islamist militancy linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Last week, Washington ordered non-essential diplomats out of the Gulf state and warned Americans they should leave, citing fresh signals of possible attacks on U.S. and Western interests.
Suicide bombings at foreign residential compounds in Riyadh killed 50 people last year, including nine Americans.
EARLIER ATTACKS FOILED
Ambulances rushed toward the site of Wednesday's blast and smoke billowed from damaged buildings in the area, which also houses state television and the Information Ministry.
The explosion gouged a deep crater in the road where dozens of blackened and twisted cars still smouldered and glass shards and concrete blocks lay thickly on the tarmac. Security forces cordoned off the area. Firefighters battled raging fires.
Dubai-based Arab satellite television channel Al Arabiya said a suspected suicide bomber was killed.
Saudi Arabia last week defused five cars rigged with explosives in Riyadh, security sources said. Suspected Muslim militants also killed at least five Saudi policemen last week.
"We succeeded in preventing five like this but this one got through," the Interior Ministry source said.
Since Monday, police have been hunting a group of militants after gunbattles in which they also fired rocket-propelled grenades at police. The same group is believed to have killed four policemen at checkpoints.
Last week, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted al Qaeda militants, in a video carried on an Islamist Web site, called on Muslims to kill Americans everywhere and vowed attacks against Arab leaders allied to Washington.
Saudi Arabia has blamed the 2003 bombings at Riyadh residential compounds on al Qaeda, which Washington accuses of the September 11 attacks on the United States three years ago.
U.S. officials have praised recent Saudi efforts against militants, a contrast to earlier disquiet at perceived tolerance for radical Islam in Saudi Arabia -- 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers on September 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals.
Bin Laden, whose Saudi citizenship was revoked by the authorities, has often branded the kingdom's rulers as traitors to Islam and "infidel agents" of the United States.
Sad to say, but this is oddly refreshing, rather than fudging and saying "the cause of the blast is still under investigation" or something equally as vague.
Stopping five car bombings is actually pretty good, however the persistence of terrorists can't be underestimated. They only need to succeed once.
This is nothing more than a Saudi attack on some internal maverick as a warning to all others to obey. The Saudis in charge of world-wide kerrorism have simply arrange a little local diversion to make it appear that they are vics and not perps.
There is no way something like this could be planned and executed in Saudi without the Saudis and their internal police knowing about it.
It either wasn't that big of a bomb, or they were looking with a strainer.
Well no shiite, Sherlock. As opposed to a non-terrorist car bomb attack? The picture is eerily reminiscent of OKC.
Yes, it is.
My point about them labeling it a terrorist attack is that in the US, "the authorities" first action is usually to come out and stress that we don't yet know the cause.
They only have to get lucky once.
Fortunately this is a law enforcement problem. You see, they are just merely breaking the law by blowing up innocient people. An act of war is when.. er... ummm. We can just show them a badge and they will give up. That'll solve the problem... yep.
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