 AP Photo
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Posted on 05/12/2003 9:22:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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18 minutes ago
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By HASSAN JAMALI, Associated Press Writer
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three gated compounds housing Westerners and others and set off car bombs in Saudi Arabia's largest city. At least one person was killed and 60 were injured, hospital and security officials said.
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The string of attacks occurred in quick succession Monday night, capped by a fourth explosion early Tuesday outside the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Saudi owned company in Riyadh.
U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, told CNN that 40 of the injured were Americans and said there were unconfirmed reports "of a couple of American deaths."
Jordan joined other U.S. and Saudi officials in saying that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network was suspected of being behind the bombings.
"It's certainly a prime suspect, I would say," Jordan said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The blasts come as the United States is pulling out most of the 5,000 U.S. troops based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence has fueled anti-American sentiment against the kingdom's rulers. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most of the troops would leave by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden has used the presence of U.S. soldiers in the kingdom — the birthplace of Islam — as a rallying call for attacks on U.S. interests worldwide. Saudi Arabia was home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 attack hijackers.
Smoke rose into the night sky from one of the attacked compounds, located in the Garnata neighborhood in eastern Riyadh, and a helicopter circled overhead, scanning the ground with a searchlight. Hundreds of anti-riot police and members of the elite National Guard were evacuating the area and sealing it off as ambulances rushed in.
An official at the Abdul-Rahman Al-Mishari hospital said a man in his early 20s was killed in the blasts. His body, along with five people suffering minor injuries, was brought to the hospital. No further details were provided.
One woman was in critical condition and four others were slightly injured at another hospital, officials said.
"We don't know how many are injured, but we received 50 and the number is growing," an official at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh told The Associated Press by telephone, without identifying himself. "We're very busy, we are receiving a lot of casualties."
The wealthy gated communities that were attacked house corporate executives and other professionals. About half of the residents were Westerners, mostly British, Italian and French but also some Americans, and the rest were Saudis and other Arabs, a Saudi official said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) will go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as scheduled, a U.S. official traveling with him said on condition of anonymity. Powell, who was coming from neighboring Jordan, is seeking the Saudis' help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform on a Mideast tour that has already taken him to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
State Department officials in Washington said the American school in Riyadh likely will be closed Tuesday, and advised Americans to remain at home until further notice.
Justice Department (news - web sites) and FBI (news - web sites) officials said they were monitoring the situation but had no immediate indication that other attacks might be planned against U.S. interests at home or abroad.
A counterintelligence official in Washington said intelligence from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida was close to launching a strike in Saudi Arabia. The State Department had advised Americans earlier his month against travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
Saudi officials have also recently said al-Qaida was planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites.
In Monday night's attacks, gunmen in three cars shot their way into the three residential compounds before setting off explosives in the vehicles, a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said it was not known if the gunmen killed themselves in the blasts or fled.
An American who lives in one of the targeted areas told the AP in an e-mail exchange from Riyadh that there was extensive damage to property and that he believed there had been some deaths.
Three Boeing Co. employees were slightly injured by flying glass, said Boeing spokesman Bob Jorgensen. They are among a group of 12 Boeing instructors training Saudi Air Force on operating Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) jets, the spokesman said in Seattle.
Witnesses at the Garnata compound said the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded. The compound is owned by Riyadh's deputy governor, Abdullah al-Blaidh.
The names of the other two Western compounds attacked were not immediately known.
The fourth blast went off at the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Company, also known as Siyanco, early Tuesday morning. The company is a joint-owned venture between Frank E. Basil, Inc., of Washington, and local Saudi partners, the officials reported.
Last week, a senior Saudi security official said suspected terrorists were receiving orders directly from bin Laden and were planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting the royal family as well as American and British interests.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.
On Wednesday, authorities said they foiled plans by at least 19 suspected terrorists to carry out strikes and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in the capital.
All escaped after a gunfight with police.
In remarks Thursday, Prince Nayef said the suspected terrorists in that case could be linked to al-Qaida, which he said was now "weak and almost nonexistent."
Nayef said the men included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. "These men have only one goal in mind: Jihad (holy war) ... They have been brainwashed," he said.
Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television Wednesday, and a reward of more than $50,000 has been offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects.
The confiscated weapons included hand grenades, five suitcases of explosives, rifles and ammunition, as well as computers, communications equipment and cash, officials said.
A week earlier, an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
In 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S.-run military training facility in Riyadh. Seven people died, including five American advisers to the Saudi National Guard. The Islamic Movement for Change and two smaller groups in the region claimed responsibility.
This from Bloomberg.
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