Al-Qaeda claims Riyadh attack

2003-11-11 10:23

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - The al-Qaeda terror network has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing that killed at least 17 people and injured dozens in the Saudi capital, an Arab weekly that has received purported al-Qaeda statements in the past said Tuesday.

"We struck Muhaya compound," the London-based weekly Al-Majalla quoted an e-mail from a purported al-Qaeda operative identified as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj as saying, referring to the residential compound attacked on Saturday. It was the first claim of responsibility for the bombing.

The magazine, which appears on Fridays, said the e-mail was first seen late on Monday and released a statement about it on Tuesday.

Saudi and US officials already had blamed Saturday's attack on al-Qaeda, which opposes the United States and the Saudi ruling family. The attack, the officials say, was similar to previous al-Qaeda strikes.

Al-Majalla magazine began receiving e-mails from al-Ablaj earlier this year. A US counter-terrorism official has said al-Ablaj was believed to be a leading al-Qaeda figure also known as Abu Bakr.

Among al-Ablaj statements Al-Majalla has published in the past was one the magazine said it received before the string of bombings in US-occupied Iraq in October that said the terrorist network was preparing attacks against Americans during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The start of Ramadan coincided with the Iraq bombings.

The magazine also reported previously that it received an e-mail warning from al-Ablaj of attacks in Saudi Arabia a day before the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia. Those bombings resembled Saturday's attack, hitting a residential compound housing foreigners and killing and wounding Arabs as well as Westerners.

Mixing with Americans

The latest al-Ablaj e-mail addressed criticism that Saturday's strike hurt Arabs and Muslims, not Americans, saying al-Qaeda also believed "working with Americans and mixing with them" was forbidden.

Saturday night's car bombing was portrayed by Saudis as proof of al-Qaeda's willingness to shed Arab and Muslim blood as well in its zeal to bring down the US-linked Saudi monarchy. Al-Qaeda, led by Saudi-born, fugitive multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, has long opposed the Saudi royal family, accusing it of being insufficiently Islamic and too close to the West, particularly the United States.

At least 13 of those killed in the attack were Arabs, with four still unidentified, Saudi official news agency quoted a Saudi Interior Ministry official as saying. Five were children. In addition, 122 people were injured, among them some Americans but most of them Arab.

The al-Ablaj e-mail said an al-Qaeda member was killed in the attack. There has been no official word from Saudi authorities on how many how many attackers were killed on Saturday, but the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Tuesday that the investigation showed two people were in the car packed with explosives.

- AP