Saudi blast kills two, injures five

A remote control bomb went off yesterday outside a shop in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar, police said. Saudi television and the Khobar hospital said two people were killed and five injured.

All the casualties were foreigners, the television said. There was no immediate word on their nationalities. An official at King Fahd hospital said the five foreigners were in stable condition.

A US State Department official in Washington said one American was injured.

In London, the Foreign Office said a British man was also among those injured. Diplomats visited the man, who has ‘‘superficial injuries,’’ a spokeswoman said.

The powerful blast on King Khaled Street, a shopping district popular with foreigners, shattered windows and damaged cars shortly before 8pm (6pm Irish time), according to witnesses, who refused to be identified.

Police said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed outside the Al-Mushiri electronics and watch shop and detonated by remote control.

Rescue workers and firefighters searched through the wreckage littered with broken glass as police sealed off the area. Security personnel told curious passersby to clear the area as they gathered evidence and took photographs of the scene.

Security and immigration control were beefed up at the nearby King Fahd Causeway, the border crossing between Saudi Arabia and the Gulf island-nation of Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has seen a number of bomb attacks since 1996 including two attacks in Khobar that Saudi officials said were linked to a settling of scores between criminals.

A White House spokesman said Saturday’s blast explosion appeared unrelated to the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

’’We’re collecting information, but at this point we have no reason to believe it is anything other than an isolated and unconnected event,’’ said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Authorities were to issue a statement detailing the nationalities of those killed and injured, the television said.

In 1996, 19 US servicemen were killed when members of dissident Saudi Hezbollah group bombed the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran, near Khobar. US prosecutors have indicted 14 people in that case.

Two bombings in the capital, Riyadh, between November 17 and December 15 killed a Briton and injured four others.

A Scottish man was injured in an explosion in Khobar in December. In March, a Briton and an Egyptian were injured in a bombing outside a large downtown Riyadh bookstore. In May, an American was seriously injured in Khobar when the package he was opening exploded in his face.

Three British men were arrested in Saudi Arabia in connection with some of the bombings and confessed on state-run TV.

Saudi Arabia has promised its support for a US-led campaign against terrorism.

Following the 1996 attack, US military personnel have moved to Prince Sultan Air Base in the Saudi desert.

US officials have downplayed any disagreements with Saudi Arabia on whether the United States could use the air base for military operations. US Air Force F15s and F16s have been using the air base for patrols over southern Iraq.

There are 4,500 US military personnel at the base.