May 14, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

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RIYADH, May 13: At least 29 people, including seven US nationals, were killed and about 200 injured when suicide car bombings devastated three housing compounds for foreigners here on Monday night.

Washington blamed the Al Qaeda network for the bombings, with President George Bush vowing to be relentless in the “war on terrorism” and to hunt down those responsible for the attacks.

The attacks were “suicide bombings using booby-trapped cars filled with explosives”, the Saudi interior ministry said.

Confusion surrounded the casualty figures as different US officials came up with varying versions.

At the top of the range was Vice President Dick Cheney, who put the death toll at 91 and cited the figure to emphasize that the “war on terror” was far from over.

“Lest any of us think this struggle is over with, all we have to do is contemplate last night’s tragic events in Riyadh where some 91 people were killed,” Mr Cheney told an audience at the Hudson Institute as he gave an introduction for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The State Department, too, went along with the vice president’s version.

However, other US officials backed off the high toll and said the final figure would likely be closer to the Saudi estimate (29) once the rubble was cleared to find any more bodies.

The Saudi interior ministry said seven Saudis, seven Americans, two Jordanian children, two Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Swiss national had died in the explosions. Nine attackers were also among the dead, according to the ministry.

“At least 44 Americans were injured. Their wounds vary — some are critical, others were cut by flying glass,” John Burgess, counsellor for public affairs at the US embassy, said.

A British embassy spokesman said a “small number” of Britons were lightly wounded but he could not confirm any British dead, adding that the embassy was still checking with hospitals.

Japan, Italy and the Netherlands each reported three of their nationals injured, with one of the Dutch in intensive care, and a Norwegian and a Spanish national of Venezuelan origin were also hurt.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said some French nationals were also hurt, but he gave no details.

COORDINATED STRIKE: In a clearly coordinated strike hours before Tuesday’s visit to Riyadh by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the attackers drove, guns blazing, into three guarded housing compounds for expatriates around 11.30pm (2.30am Tuesday PST) and set off huge car bombs.

In the almost simultaneous attacks, 10 people were killed in a first explosion at Al-Hamra compound, two at Al-Jadawel compound and eight at the Vinnell complex, the Saudi ministry said.

Security men guarding the residential compounds exchanged fire with the bombers, which helped avoid a larger number of casualties due to the high “quality and large quantity of explosives used”, the ministry said.

The Al-Hamra blast claimed the life of Mohammed al-Blaihed, a 35-year-old son of Riyadh’s deputy governor Abdullah al-Blaihed, and Jihad Dalloul, a nephew of former Lebanese defence minister Mohsen Dalloul, as well as two Filipino workers.

The charred bodies of four armed men were found in a car at the scene of the attack, residents said.

The force of the blast destroyed dozens of villas, blew the huge concrete blocks erected to protect the compound dozens of metres away and left a crater five metres deep.

The blasts sent fireballs into the night sky above the compounds in the Gharnata, Ishbiliya and Cordoba districts. A clock inside one building stopped at 11.28.

“We were sleeping when we were woken up by the sound of gunfire,” one European, Nick, told the Arab News newspaper.

“Moments later, a loud explosion was heard followed by another bigger explosion.”

Cars and pickup trucks, badly twisted and still smouldering, littered the complexes of villas and four-storey blocks. Many balconies were blown off, leaving steel girders jutting out. The bombs gouged massive holes in walls and brought down roofs.

About 30,000 American expatriates work in Saudi Arabia, many in the oil industry, but also in services such as finance, defence and health. There are also about 30,000 British residents among a large Western community.

Oil prices nudged upwards in reaction to the attacks.

A US official said a fourth bomb had targeted the premises of a US-Saudi joint venture, the Saudi Maintenance Co, or Siyanco, which provides maintenance services for buildings.

POWELL SEES AL QAEDA LINK: “This was a well-planned terrorist attack,” Mr Powell said in Riyadh. “It has all the fingerprints of an Al Qaeda operation.”

On a Middle East tour to explain US policy after the overthrow of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Mr Powell visited a walled complex for US defence workers and saw for himself the devastation wrought as residents slept. Entire walls of apartment blocks collapsed.

“These are people who were determined to penetrate places like this just for the purpose of killing people in their sleep, killing innocent people ...

“This is criminality, terrorism at its worst, there is no justification in any way shape or form,” Mr Powell said of the first major anti-Western attack since the US-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March.

“These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate, and the United States will find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice,” said President George Bush in Indianapolis. “The war on terror continues.”

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah also later visited the site and several of the injured in one of the capital’s hospitals.

“TERROR CELL”: Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said “these explosions were suicide bombings, which are unprecedented in the kingdom” and are linked to a terror cell uncovered in Riyadh last week.

Riyadh announced on May 7 it had uncovered a cell of the Al Qaeda network planning to carry out major attacks in the kingdom and that security forces were hunting 17 Saudis, one Kuwaiti-Canadian of Iraqi origin and a Yemeni. Searches of their hideout netted a huge cache of arms, the interior ministry said. Prince Nayef said one fugitive had surrendered to security forces but provided little information about the cell.

In a message received on Tuesday by a London-published Saudi weekly newspaper, Al-Majallah, the Al Qaeda implied it had carried out the Riyadh bombings.

The group had “been planning major operations for a long time in the Gulf where it had stocked large amounts of arms and explosives”, Al Qaeda operative Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj wrote in an e-mail to the paper. A Saudi group believed close to the Al Qaeda called on a website on Sunday for revenge attacks on US interests following the huge arms seizure in Riyadh.

ADVICE TO US CITIZENS: The US embassy urged the up to 40,000 Americans residing in Saudi Arabia to stay at home and “away from windows and doors” and to remain vigilant.—Reuters\AFP