17 die in Saudi blast

A car bombing that killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more in the Saudi capital Riyadh was being seen as proof the al Qaida terror network is even willing to shed the blood of Muslims in its campaign to bring down the Saudi royal family.

“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.”

After a day of searching through rubble in a residential compound, a Saudi official late tonight said six more bodies had been found, raising the death toll to 17, including five children.

At least 13 were Arabs, with the others as yet unidentified, the Interior Ministry official told the official Saudi news agency.

Some 122 people were injured, most of them Arabs as well.