(AP Photo)
Blasts Kill 3 Before Powell's Saudi Visit
3 Dead, 60 Injured in Shootings, Bombings in Saudi Capital Hours Before Visit By Colin Powell
The Associated Press
Posted on 05/12/2003 10:44:45 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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(AP Photo) |
Blasts Kill 3 Before Powell's Saudi Visit
3 Dead, 60 Injured in Shootings, Bombings in Saudi Capital Hours Before Visit By Colin Powell
The Associated Press |
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia May 13 — Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three gated compounds housing Westerners in Saudi Arabia's capital and set off car bombs. At least three people were killed and about 60 injured, officials said. 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.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that three people were confirmed dead but gave no other details. 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." Hospital officials in Riyadh told The Associated Press that at least 50 wounded were taken to the National Guard Hospital, and other hospitals reported at least 10 injured and one dead. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to arrive in Riyadh Tuesday as scheduled, according to American officials in Jordan, Amman. Powell, who already has visited Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan on a Mideast tour, was to meet Saudi leaders to seek help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but American officials said they suspected Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. An intelligence official in Washington said information from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida was planning a strike in Saudi Arabia. "(Al-Qaida) is certainly a prime suspect, I would say," Jordan said on CNN. Saudi officials also have said al-Qaida was planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, which is bin Laden's birthplace and home to Islam's holiest sites. Saudi Arabian men also made up 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. The blasts came as the United States is pulling out most of the 5,000 troops it had based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence fueled anti-American sentiment. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most would be gone 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. 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. 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. "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 and the rest were Saudis and other Arabs, a Saudi official said. State Department officials said the American school in Riyadh likely will be closed Tuesday, and advised Americans to remain at home until further notice. Earlier this month, it had advised Americans earlier against traveling to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns. Justice Department and FBI 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. 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. An American who lives in one of the targeted areas compounds 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. 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. A previously unknown Saudi group, the Mujahedeen in the Arabian Peninsula, earlier vowed on an Internet site to strike against American targets worldwide but it was not clear whether the explosions in Riyadh were linked to the group. Last week, a senior Saudi security official said suspected terrorists were receiving orders directly from bin Laden and had been planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting the royal family as well as American and British interests. The prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef, the official said. On May 6, Saudi security forces seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in Riyadh when searching for a number of suspected terrorists, an unidentified government official told the state-run Saudi Press Agency. At least 19 men, including 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding both Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni, were being sought in connection with the terror plots, the agency reported. Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television, and a reward of more than $50,000 was offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects. 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.
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I think it's a lot cheaper and easier for the government to just take over the oil fields in the middle east and take the oil. Give them $5 per barrell, sell it to refiners in the U.S. for $20. ($20 is a nice price that American companies can compete with and make a profit) Government keeps the extra $15 per barrell and 1)pays down the national debt. 2) Offsets needed tax cuts. 3) Funds medicare and medicade. 4) invests in infrastructure.
No, they'll just hire another bootlicking DC public relations firm and make some new PSAs about how loving and peaceful they are - and how Americans are their absolutely favorite people. Right.
Let me correct that. They had better do so.
I disagree. Saudi Arabia is on that list you don't want to be on. Even if it is an unofficial list.
This President is not an idiot, and he knows what they are about.
It's a game where they launch elaborate 'Friends of America, Friends for Fifty Years' PR campaigns, but at the same time incite their people against the West, and America in particular.
Enough of such nonsense. They should either stop such things, or learn firsthand what a five thousand pound bunker buster sounds like at ten yards.
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