A car bomb attack Saudi officials said appeared to be by al-Qaida killed at least five people and wounded more than 80 in an upscale Riyadh neighborhood, a day after the U.S. Embassy warned of terror attacks in the tense kingdom.
The Saturday night blasts came after gunmen exchanged fire with security guards. An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that two security guards from India and Sudan were killed. The Lebanese Embassy in Riyadh added three Lebanese a woman, a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl were also killed.
| That's considerably lower than yesterday's estimate of 30 killed... Fox News sez the count is at least 11... |
The Interior Ministry official said 86 people were wounded, most of them children and women, in a compound of about 200 houses where most of the residents were Lebanese. Some Saudis also live there, plus a few German, French and Italian families. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt said one American was wounded and another was unaccounted for. The compound attack was by a suicide car bomber and similar in style to a series of May 12 car bombings in Riyadh compounds housing foreigners that were blamed on al-Qaida and that killed 35 people, including nine suicide bombers. Some witnesses said Saturday's bombers used what appeared to be a police car. The Interior Ministry official said he did not know how many attackers were involved.
| 'Nother words, they haven't gotten close enough to get the details yet... |
In comments published Sunday on the Web site of Saudi daily Okaz newspaper, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said they could not rule out a connection to suspected al-Qaida terrorist cells targeted in recent sweeps, as a number of suspects from those cells were still at large.
| That could be because the cops are better at beating up women than at catching crooks and terrorists... |
In London Sunday, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, condemned Saturday's attack as the work of an "evil cult" whose "sole aim is the destruction of the kingdom." By targeting foreigners' housing compounds, the attackers were targeting the backbone of the Saudi economy. Saudi Arabia is home to 6 million expatriate workers, including about 35,000 Americans and 30,000 Britons. The kingdom relies on foreigners in its oil industry, security forces and health sector.
| That's because Soddy efficiency is legendary... |
"This evil must be stopped," Prince Turki said, without naming al-Qaida. "We call on all the people of the world to work with us in fighting this evil and ridding the international community of this plague."
| All us people of the world call on Soddy Arabia to clean house, starting with the holy men who intigate this sort of thing. |
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