US cuts back staff in Riyadh

2003-05-14 10:10

Riyadh - The United States ordered a reduction in its diplomatic presence in Saudi Arabia as fears grew on Wednesday that the death toll from suicide bombings at three foreign compounds in Riyadh could rise well above the figure of 29 announced by Saudi authorities.

US President George W Bush angrily vowed a "relentless" campaign to stamp out groups like al-Qaeda, blamed for Monday's night bombings, the first major attacks on US-related targets since the war in Iraq.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes, the war on terror goes on. And this incident in Saudi Arabia shows the country that we still have got a war to fight. And we will fight it and we will win it," the US leader told reporters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Saudi interior ministry said at least 29 people were killed, including nine suicide bombers and seven Americans, and 194 were injured in the blasts.

Washington fears the death toll could rise to as high as 50, a senior state department official said.

That estimate is higher than the figure given by the Saudis but far lower than an initial toll of 91 that other State Department officials, and later, vice-president Dick Cheney, had cited.

US secretary of state Colin Powell, touring one of the bombed sites, said the attacks bore "all the fingerprints" of the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001 strikes on New York and Washington.

"It was very well executed and it shows the nature of the enemy we are working against," he said during a tour of a devastated compound housing personnel of US firm Vinnell.

"These are people who were determined to penetrate places like this just for the purpose of killing people in their sleep, killing innocent people..," said Powell, in Riyadh on a tour to push for Middle East peace.

The United States meanwhile ordered non-essential US diplomats and the families of all its embassy and consulate personnel to leave Saudi Arabia.

The drawdown in the US diplomatic presence in Saudi Arabia reflects grave fears of ongoing terrorist threats in the country, the state department said in a statement that renewed an existing travel warning for the country.

"US citizens are reminded of increased security concerns and the potential of further terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia," the department said.

Al-Qaeda implied it carried out the Riyadh bombings in a message received Tuesday by a London-published Saudi weekly newspaper, Al-Majallah.

The group had "been planning major operations for a long time in the Gulf where it had stocked large amounts of arms and explosives", al-Qaeda operative Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj wrote in an e-mail to the paper.

Riyadh announced on May 7 it had uncovered an al-Qaeda cell planning to carry out major attacks in the kingdom and that security forces were hunting 17 Saudis, one Kuwaiti-Canadian of Iraqi origin and a Yemeni.

With anti-US sentiment running high in Saudi Arabia following the war on Iraq, Riyadh and Washington announced in late April they were ending the presence of some 10 000 US troops, dozens of aircraft and a state-of-the-art command and control system in the kingdom.

The departure of US forces from the kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites, was the main demand of bin Laden.

In the almost simultaneous attacks, 10 people were killed in a first explosion at Al-Hamra compound, two at Al-Jadawel compound and eight at the Vinnell complex, the Saudi interior ministry said.

It said the toll included seven Saudis, seven Americans, two Jordanian children, two Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Swiss national, in addition to nine charred bodies believed to be the attackers.

It made no mention of an Australian or three Jordanian adults who officials in Canberra and Amman said had been killed in the attacks, which sparked a chorus of international condemnation.

The attacks were "suicide bombings using booby-trapped cars filled with explosives," the ministry said.

Security men guarding the residential compounds exchanged fire with the bombers, which helped avoid a larger number of casualties due to the high "quality and large quantity of explosives used", the ministry said.

A high-ranking US official travelling with Powell said the attacks were executed like true commando operations.

In the bombing at the Vinnell Corporation, suicide bombers took "thirty seconds to a minute" to knock out the security post, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

He also said the Saudi government remains "stable" despite the attacks.

The Al-Hamra blast claimed the life of Mohammed al-Blaihed, a 35-year-old son of Riyadh's deputy governor Abdullah al-Blaihed, and Jihad Dalloul, a nephew of former Lebanese defence minister Mohsen Dalloul, as well as two Filipino workers.

The charred bodies of four armed men were found in a car at the compound, residents said.

The force of the blast destroyed dozens of villas, blew the huge concrete blocks erected to protect the compound dozens of metres away and left a crater five metres deep.

"At least 44 Americans were injured. Their wounds vary - some are critical, others were cut by flying glass," John Burgess, counsellor for public affairs at the US embassy, said.

A British embassy spokesperson said a "small number" of Britons were lightly wounded but he could not confirm any British dead, adding that the embassy was still checking with hospitals.

Japan, Italy and the Netherlands each reported three of their nationals injured, with one of the Dutch in intensive care, and a Norwegian and a Spanish national of Venezuelan origin were also hurt.

French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said some French nationals were also hurt, but gave no details.

- AFX