Saudi official blames al Qaida for Riyadh bombing

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 09, 2003

Saudi official blames al Qaida for Riyadh bombing

A senior Saudi official said on Sunday al Qaida should be blamed for the bombing that rocked a residential compound west of Riyadh late on Saturday, killing between 20 to 30 people.

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A senior Saudi official said on Sunday al Qaida should be blamed for the bombing that rocked a residential compound west of Riyadh late on Saturday, killing between 20 to 30 people.

The attack is exactly in the style of al Qaida, the official was quoted by the Cable News Network (CNN) monitored here. It wasa suicide car bombing, the official said.

There was no official report on casualties in the attack. The Saudi Arabian television reported that at least two were killed and more than 80 others were wounded. Other reports quoted diplomats or hospital sources as saying that at least 20 to 30 people were killed.

Reports say that at least two Americans were wounded in the attack.

A Chinese diplomat told Xinhua that so far no Chinese casualties were reported, adding that Chinese doctors who work at a nearby hospital were called to the hospital to treat the wounded.

Earlier, Hanadi al-Khandakli, a manager of the al-Muhaya residential compound which was hit by the blast, said that at least 100 were wounded in the Riyadh bombing.

"There are no less than 100 wounded, most of them children," she said, adding she could not immediately tell whether there wereany fatalities.

The explosions rocked the Saudi capital one day after the US diplomatic missions in the country were closed amid warns of possible terror attacks.

The blasts occurred near a district where the palaces of Saudi royal family's senior princes and diplomatic quarters are located in the western part of Riyadh.

Witnesses said smoke could be seen rising from the area of the blasts and police cars and ambulances were racing towards the blast sites.

On Friday, sources from the US embassy in Riyadh said the US diplomatic missions will close on Saturday to assess security conditions as credible information showed that terrorists in SaudiArabia plan to carry out attacks in the kingdom.

The United States had earlier warned of possible terror attacksin Saudi Arabia during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

On May 12, a triple suicide bombing attack on Western residential compounds in Riyadh killed 35 people and wounded more than 100. Since then Saudi authorities have launched large-scale crack down on suspected militants in the country.

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