Saudi ambassador warns of new terror attacks

Saudi and US officials say Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida group may launch fresh terror attacks in the United States or against American interests overseas.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington told reporters in Riyadh, the scene of last week’s suicide bombing attack that killed 34 people, that “there is chatter, a high level of chatter regionally and in other international spots” about possible attacks in Saudi Arabia or America.

“My gut feeling tells me something big is going to happen here or in America,” Prince Bandar bin Sultan said last night.

Prince Bandar is known for handling delicate diplomatic tasks for his government and rushed back to Riyadh following the May 12 car bomb attacks, which killed 34 people.

The FBI has also warned that al-Qaida could mount new attacks in the United States as well as target American and Western interests overseas.

“The US intelligence community assesses that attacks against US and Western targets overseas are likely – attacks in the United States cannot be ruled out,” says an FBI bulletin dispatched to state and local law enforcement agencies around the country.

Prince Bandar said Saudi authorities had received advance warning of a terror attack hitting Saudi Arabia before the Riyadh bombings. “Yes, we had warning, yes we had heightened alert but we never had a specific time and place designated,” he said.

Earlier yesterday, a man standing with a gun outside the US Consulate in Dhahran, 300 miles east of Riyadh, was arrested and was being questioned by Saudi police, a US Embassy official said.

US diplomats said no one was injured or threatened in the incident, but that the consulate was closed until further notice. In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks near Dhahran.

Prince Bandar said the man, armed with a machine gun and a pistol, was wanted by police on drugs charges and was seeking political asylum.

The ambassador also told reporters that Saudi authorities had obtained information during recent months that al-Qaida had been wracked by internal divisions.

Saudi officials believed that the terror group’s leaders had been so split that they did not want to risk carrying out any attacks in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden’s birthplace, in order to maintain their intellectual base within the Gulf kingdom.

“(But) they have mended their differences and decided to come out,” said Prince Bandar.