Saudis blame al-Qaida as bomb attack kills 17
The attack late Saturday at an upscale compound for foreign workers where mostly Arabs lived killed 17 people and wounded more than 120. The blast, not far from diplomatic quarters and the king's main palace, left piles of rubble, hunks of twisted metal, broken glass and a large crater.
"It's no longer an issue of terrorism for them," said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi analyst. "It's become a war on the regime, a war to turn the country into a new Afghanistan ruled by a Saudi-style Taliban."
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he was "personally quite sure" al-Qaida was behind the Saturday night attack "because this attack bears the hallmark of them".
Gunmen possibly disguised as police shot their way into the 200-house compound, trading fire with security guards. The attackers, believed to be in a police car, then drove into the compound and blew themselves up.
Those killed were Lebanese, Egyptian, Sudanese and Saudi five of them children. The Interior Ministry said most of the 122 injured were Arabs as well. Most of the compound's residents were Lebanese, but some Saudis, German, French and Italian families also lived there.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef said he 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.
Adding to the al-Qaida connection was the similarity between Saturday's bombing and attacks also blamed on the terror network particularly the May 12 suicide car bombings of other Riyadh compounds housing foreigners, which killed 26 bystanders. Nine attackers also died.
Saturday's attack came a day after the United States warned it had "credible" evidence of a planned terrorist attack.
