Nine Killed in Saudi Car Bomb Explosion

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Nine Killed in Saudi Car Bomb Explosion
1
Wed, 04-21-2004 - 3:05pm
Today: April 21, 2004 at 10:31:20 PDT

Nine Killed in Saudi Car Bomb Explosion

By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -

A suicide car bomb blasted the Saudi national police headquarters Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 125 others, just days after the United States warned of a terrorist attack.

Facades were torn off buildings, revealing rooms still ablaze. Cars parked nearby were smashed by debris. Clouds of dust and black smoke rose from the seven-story building and settled over the neighborhood.

A Saudi Interior Ministry statement said attackers tried to drive one vehicle into the building, which housed the headquarters of Riyadh's traffic department in addition to the General Security headquarters.

The driver exploded the car 100 feet away from the gate, the Interior Ministry official said.

While the statement referred to just one car bomb, a police official had told The Associated Press earlier that two cars with bombs were parked about 50 feet away from the building. He added "a number of charred bodies" were carried from the scene.

The police official had said the blasts appeared to have resulted from suicide attacks and that one assailant died and one police officer was also killed.

Nine people were killed, including a police colonel, and 125 were wounded, according to officials at three hospitals.

It was not immediately known if the suicide attacker was among the dead counted by the hospital officials.

Among the wounded were police, some in critical condition, and at least three children.

A Saudi official told AP that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal about 30 minutes after the attack. The meeting was at the Foreign Ministry, which is close to the General Security building in al-Nassiriyah, a central Riyadh neighborhood.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah visited the wounded, one of them a young man who was unconscious and on a respirator. The prince stopped at the bedside of another young man who appeared alert and had no obvious injuries. A third wounded man wore camouflage.

"Your duty is our pride. God will help us to defeat these people," Abdullah told one of the injured.

The General Security building, the administrative headquarters of the Saudi domestic security service, was severely damaged. A number of homes in the neighborhood also were damaged.

General Security oversees officers who investigate burglaries and murders, direct traffic and perform other basic police duties in the kingdom. Such officers have been on the front lines in a Saudi crackdown on Islamic militants, manning checkpoints as part of stepped up security and occasionally engaging in fire fights with suspects.

Last month, a purported al-Qaida message appeared on the Internet threatening Saudi police, members of the intelligence forces and other security agents. The message said targeting Saudi security agents "in their homes or workplace is a very easy matter."

The explosion, which occurred about 2 p.m., hit when workers would have been leaving for the Saudi weekend.

Saudi TV showed the General Security building, about seven floors, with its glass facade shattered and severe damage inside. Firefighters worked to extinguish the blazes, and more than 20 ambulances had arrived. Two helicopters flew above the site. Police blocked the area and evacuated the surrounding buildings.

Hanan Batteesha, an Egyptian woman, was with her two children, aged 11 and 14, when she heard a "big blast."

"We heard wails and cries, then saw our neighbors running down the stairs," she said.

By the time they reached the ground floor, "the gate was damaged, windows started shattering, and glass fell all over us," she said. "The fronts of the buildings around us were damaged, the air conditioners mangled and there was smoke everywhere."

The blast was heard and felt more than three miles away.

In an interview with the Saudi TV station Al-Ekhbaria, a leading Saudi cleric called the bombing "a dastardly criminal act."

"How can they make these dastardly acts bring them closer to God?" Sheik Abdullah Al-Mutlaq said, apparently alluding to Islamic militants who are blamed for terrorist strikes in the kingdom.

The acting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, condemned the attack but urged the Saudi authorities to pursue the perpetrators by legal means.

"An essential element in fighting this scourge is to uphold the rule of law and fundamental standards of human rights, the very things terrorists seek to destroy," Ramcharan said in a statement.

The explosion came only days after Saudi authorities announced they had seized three booby-trapped SUVs that were loaded with a total of more than four tons of explosives and had apparently been abandoned by militants involved in a shootout with security forces.

An April 12 shootout in Riyadh left one suspected militant and one policeman dead. The next day, militants opened fire at a checkpoint in Riyadh, killing four police officers. Eight people have been arrested in connection with the shootouts.

The United States last week ordered the departure of nonessential U.S. government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia. It also urged private citizens to leave the kingdom, and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued an advisory, warning of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia."

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said no Americans were hurt in the bombing.

President Bush had announced earlier this month that he was dispatching Armitage to the region for talks on Iraq.

Last year, the Saudi capital suffered two major attacks by suicide bombers driving vehicles filled with explosives. A total of 51 people were killed in the May and November bombings, including the assailants.

The Saudis pursued terrorists and Islamic extremists vigorously after those attacks, arresting hundreds of people.

The attacks were blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, the network accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 strikes in the United States.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2004/apr/21/042107128.html

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 04-21-2004 - 4:32pm

I was watching BBC news early this morning & this explosion had just happened. The newscaster, in Riyadh, said there were other car bombs but they'd been stopped before they'd exploded. I couldn't find this info. on the BBC site. I'll keep checking & listen to BBC @ six PM.


I think they knew something like this was in the 'works' as US citizens have been advised to leave the country.


Those aweful car bombings in Iraq too. Basra was one of the more peaceful areas.


Scores killed in Iraqi bombings.


A series of bomb attacks in the Basra area of southern Iraq has killed at least 68 people and injured many more.


The first blasts - apparently suicide bombings - occurred outside three police stations in Basra city centre during Wednesday's morning rush hour.

Many of the dead and injured were children travelling in passing buses on their way to school.


More...............


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3644733.stm

cl-Libraone~

 


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