RIYADH, May 14: The United States ordered a reduction in its diplomatic presence in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in the wake of Monday’s suicide bombings on housing compounds for expatriates.
US President George Bush angrily vowed a “relentless” campaign to stamp out groups like Al Qaeda, blamed for the bombings, the first major attacks on US-related targets since the Iraq invasion.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes, the war on terror goes on. And this incident in Saudi Arabia shows the country that we still have got a war to fight. And we will fight it and we will win it,” the US leader told reporters in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday.
The United States ordered non-essential diplomats and the families of all its embassy and consulate personnel to leave Saudi Arabia.
The drawdown in the US diplomatic presence reflects grave fears of ongoing terrorist threats in Saudi Arabia, the State Department said in a statement that renewed an existing travel warning for the country.
“US citizens are reminded of increased security concerns and the potential of further terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia,” the department said.
With anti-US sentiment running high following the invasion of Iraq, Riyadh and Washington announced last month they were ending the presence of some 10,000 US troops, dozens of aircraft and a state-of-the-art command and control system.
The departure of US forces from Saudi Arabia was the main demand of Osama bin Laden. —AFP
ADVICE TO CITIZENS: The United States advised its citizens in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to leave the kingdom following a series of car-bomb attacks in Riyadh that killed over two dozen people, including seven Americans, our correspondent adds from Washington.
The American school in Riyadh has also been closed.
“We continue to advise US citizens to evaluate their own security situation and consider departing Saudi Arabia,” said the department’s deputy spokesman, Philip Reeker.
“Our ambassador and his team in Riyadh are working round the clock, literally, to determine natures of threats to US personnel and to US installations in the American citizen community there,” he added.
The spokesman said that at least seven American citizens were among those killed in the blasts, and at least 39 were injured.
Mr Reeker said that an interagency team, including officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, would arrive soon in Saudi Arabia to assist with the investigation.
He said that on May 1, the state department issued a travel warning asking US citizens to defer nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia, because “we were aware ... that terrorist groups may be in the final stages of planning attacks against US interests in the kingdom.”
