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Explosions before powell visit { May 12 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46368-2003May12.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46368-2003May12.html
Series of Explosions Shakes Riyadh
By Hassan Jamali
Associated Press Writer
Monday, May 12, 2003; 8:53 PM
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three compounds housing Westerners and Saudis and set off car bombs, officials said. At least 50 people were injured, a hospital official said.
The string of attacks occurred in quick succession, and a fourth explosion rocked Riyadh early Tuesday outside the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Saudi owned company.
U.S. and Saudi officials said they suspected the al-Qaida terror network was behind the bombings.
"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."
Smoke rose into the night sky from one of the attacked compounds, located in the Garnata neigborhood 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.
The compounds are upscale gated communities housing corporate executives and other professionals. About half of them are Westerners, mostly British, Italian and French but also some Americans, and the rest Saudis and other Arabs, a Saudi official said.
A U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Colin Powell said they had been told that there were no American casualties in the explosions.
Powell, who is currently in neighboring Jordan, will go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as scheduled, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is seeking the Saudis' help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform in the latest stop on a Mideast tour that has already taken him to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
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 advised Americans earlier his month against travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
Saudi officials, as well, have recently said al-Qaida was planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, which is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden and 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.
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.
The blasts come as the United States moves to pull out most of the 5,000 troops based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence has fueled anti-American sentiment in the population. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most of the troops would leave by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden 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.
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 published Thursday, Prince Nayef said the men 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.
© 2003 The Associated Press
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