US chides Riyadh on bombings

2003-05-15 08:18

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia faced criticism from the United States Thursday that it did too little to prevent the triple suicide bombings that left dozens dead in Riyadh, as top Saudi clerics declared that such attacks on foreigners violate Islam.

Riyadh vowed to clamp down on terror in the kingdom after Monday night's bombings that devastated three expatriate compounds and which it said were carried out by 15 Saudis.

With the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden held responsible, Saudi newspapers urged the government to treat May 12, the day of the attacks, as the United States treated September 11, 2001.

The similarity between the two outrages was highlighted by foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, who said the bombings had been carried out by the same number of assailants as those who attacked Washington and New York.

"Fifteen Saudis did what they did in the attacks in the United States and 15 Saudis did the attacks here," he said on Wednesday, referring to 15 out of 19 suicide hijackers who carried out the attacks against the United States.

The Riyadh bombings killed at least 34 people, including nine bombers, and wounded 194 others, according to the latest toll from the Saudi interior ministry.

Riyadh's response not adequate

The state department in Washington said eight US citizens were killed, and 17 more are now hospitalised, including at least one in critical condition.

The United States chided Saudi Arabia over the bombings, warning that the kingdom "must deal" with terrorists within its borders.

But US officials took pains to avoid alienating the country now feared to be the epicenter of al-Qaeda activity, shunning direct attacks even as they made clear they did not think Riyadh's response to recent threats had been adequate.

"We have had good cooperation with the Saudi government, and I am sure that in the wake of this terrible incident in Riyadh that we will seek to intensify our cooperation," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

At the White House, spokesperson Ari Fleischer said the al-Qaeda network was "the leading suspect" behind the attacks and said Riyadh must "do more" to root out terrorists at home.

But Fleischer also pointedly read aloud from a May 1 State Department alert warning Americans that Washington believed terrorists were in "the final phases" of plotting attacks in the kingdom.

Recalling that warning and a similar advisory issued a day earlier by the US embassy in Riyadh, Washington's ambassador to Saudi Arabia said he wished the Saudis had acted more promptly on those concerns.

"I obviously would have preferred a quicker response to our requests for additional security at these compounds," the envoy, Robert Jordan, told NBC television.

'Nobody can hold us responsible'

The US network ABC also reported on Wednesday the Saudi government failed to provide the extra urgent security requested after specific US warnings of an imminent attack.

The network reported that by Saturday, a US government security team had identified the Jedawal compound in Riyadh as a potential attack target, and asked for more security there, including machine-gun mounted vehicles.

Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said he hoped "accusations in the United States about the responsibility of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 tragedy will cease", adding that "nobody can hold us responsible for attacking our country".

He reiterated the kingdom's resolve to fight terror.

"International terrorism is threatening the security of all of us. We must coordinate efforts...to fight against terrorism in all its shapes and forms.

"The kingdom is committed to playing its role in this connection, and to strike with an iron fist all those who may try to threaten the country's security," he said.

Riyadh announced 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. A huge weapons cache was found.

The US embassy in Riyadh and consulates general in Dhahran and Jeddah were closed on Wednesday for the second day running amid high tension and shock among the seven-million-strong expatriate community.

Washington has ordered non-essential diplomats and the families of all US embassy and consular personnel to leave Saudi Arabia after the devastating attacks.

Acts of aggression

Meanwhile top Saudi clerics declared on Wednesday that attacks on non-Muslim foreigners living in Islamic nations are strongly forbidden by Islam, and those who carry out such attacks are "corrupt" people.

In a statement issued after an extraordinary meeting on the suicide attacks, the Council of Senior Religious Scholars said the bombings "are acts totally forbidden and are not approved by Islam".

These are "acts of aggression on Islamic countries because they terrorise innocent people," said the 17-member council, headed by Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile offered no explanation for conflicting death tolls after the interior ministry revised its figures upwards to 34 dead.

That added five more to a previous Saudi toll - one Briton, one Irish national, an Australian of Lebanese origin, a third Filipino and one unidentified corpse.

- AFX