A rchive Date
[ 15-11-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Saudi Arabia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/11/08/250929-ap.html
Deadly blast rocks Saudi capital
Sun, November 9, 2003
RIYADH (CP) - Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital Saturday night, killing at least two people and wounding 86, in what a Saudi government official said was a suicide car bombing.
The attack came a day after the U.S. Embassy warned terror attacks could be imminent in the tense kingdom and its three diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed Saturday as a result. The Canadian Embassy remained open, however, a Foreign Affairs spokesman said Saturday.
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.
A Saudi Interior Ministry official said the compound attack was by a suicide car bomber. He said 86 people were wounded and two security guards - from India and Sudan - were killed. 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.
However, immediately after the explosion, there were widely conflicting reports of the death toll. A Riyadh hospital official said dozens were killed but he later said only "a number" of people died without specifying a figure.
Al-Arabiya TV later reported four people, including one child, were killed. It also reported the discovery of bodies of attackers involved in the blast. It was unclear if they were among the station's death toll.
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.
The Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa said there were no reports of Canadian casualties.
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.
Al-Arabiya television showed shots of bloodied men and women being treated at hospitals.
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 orange 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 said in a telephone interview "there is lot of blood" at the scene of the explosions.
"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 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 exchanged fire with the guards and 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 Ramadan.
A May 12 attack on western residential compounds in Riyadh killed 35 people, including the nine attackers. It was blamed on the al-Qaida terror network and Saudi authorities have arrested hundreds of suspected militants throughout the country since. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were Saudis.
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 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 "about 20 to 30 people have been killed and 50 to 60 injured."
She said "shattered glass was spread everywhere after we heard three very strong explosions."
Police said the explosions were five kilometres 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 neighbourhood whose entrances are guarded. But there are several residential compounds housing western business people relatively near the diplomatic quarter.
A western diplomat said he had 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.
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.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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