The attack came a day after the U.S. Embassy warned that terror attacks
could be imminent in the tense Gulf kingdom, and America's three
diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed Saturday as a result.
Just before the midnight blasts, an unknown number of attackers broke
into the upscale compound of about 200 villas, a Saudi official said, and
gunfire was heard.
An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press early Sunday
the attack was a suicide car bombing, and that two security guards were
killed and 86 people wounded. The official said he believed it was carried
out by al-Qaida because of similarities to a May 12 attack in the capital
that killed 35 people.
However, immediately after the explosion, there were widely conflicting
reports of the number of dead. An official at a Riyadh hospital said
dozens of people were killed, but, when contacted again, said only that
some people were dead.
A U.S. Embassy official said one American was wounded and one
registered American was unaccounted for. The Embassy was to remain closed
Sunday and U.S. diplomats will restrict their movements to the diplomatic
quarter.
Diplomats and officials said most of the residents of the compound's
200 villas were Lebanese. Some Saudis also live there, plus a few German,
French and Italian families.
Officials at the King Khaled Specialist Hospital and the King Faisal
Special Hospital & Research Center said the two hospitals received 38
wounded people.
Flames could be seen still burning at the compound several hours after
the explosion.
Al-Arabiya television showed shots of bloodied men and women being
treated at hospitals.
State-run Saudi TV aired live footage from the devastated section of
the residential compound, showing collapsed buildings, piles of rubble,
twisted metal and debris spread over a large area.
TV footage showed a large crater, apparently gouged out by an
explosion, as emergency workers poured over the bomb blast site, which
security forces had sealed off.
Huge flames were seen leaping into the night sky as helicopters hovered
overhead, beaming search lights down onto the bomb ravaged area.
A woman living in the compound told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview that "there is lot of blood" at the scene of the explosions.
"I am extremely terrified; I am really scared. I felt it was an
earthquake (news
- web
sites)," the woman said without identifying herself.
"Lots of houses are damaged, windows shattered," she said, adding that
police sirens wailed throughout the compound. "Ambulances were picking up
lots of people. It looks like there are lots of people who died."
The Saudi government official said the explosions took place in the
Muhaya compound. He said the attackers traded fire with the guards and he
said there were apparently three explosions.
He said most of the wounded were believed to be children because their
parents were out shopping during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The May 12 attack on Western residential compounds in Riyadh was blamed
on al-Qaida, and Saudi authorities have arrested hundreds of suspected
militants throughout the country since. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the
Sept. 11 attacks were Saudis.
In the May attack, gunmen also broke into residential compounds before
explosions were set off.
In the latest attack, diplomats reported one big explosion about
midnight, followed by two smaller ones 15 seconds apart. The streets were
crowded with late night crowds because of Ramadan, when Muslims fast
during the day and have dinners and parties late into the night.
Dozens of police cars and ambulances raced toward the site of the
blasts, sirens wailing, and helicopters hovered overhead. Traffic was tied
up across the city.
Hanadi al-Ghandaki, manager of the targeted compound, told al-Arabiya
that about 100 people were wounded, mostly children "because most adults
were outside the compound at that time." She did not elaborate.
Rabie Hadeka, a resident inside the compound, told Al-Arabiya that
"about 20 to 30 people have been killed and 50 to 60 injured."
She told Al-Arabiya that "shattered glass was spread everywhere after
we heard three very strong explosions."
Police said the explosions were three miles from an entrance to the
Saudi capital's diplomatic quarter.
"We heard a very strong explosion and we saw the fire," Bassem
al-Hourani, who said he was a resident at the targeted compound, told
Al-Arabiya in a telephone interview.
"I heard screams of the children and women. I don't know what happened
to my friends, if anybody was injured," he said. "All the glass in my
house were shattered."
Almost all the foreign embassies in Riyadh � including the U.S. Embassy
� and most diplomats' homes are inside the diplomatic quarter, an isolated
neighborhood whose entrances are guarded. But there are several
residential compounds housing Western business people relatively near the
diplomatic quarter.
A Western diplomat said he got a call from a friend who reported seeing
smoke rising from a building on the other side of the diplomatic quarter
near an area where the palaces of the royal family's senior princes are
located.
The city's main palaces, including those of senior princes and the
king's sprawling Riyadh residence, are just outside the east side of the
diplomatic quarter. Each of the palaces is behind a high wall, with
automatic gates for cars to drive through, and guards.
