re: war on terrorism/jordanian perspective
This report is from today's Jordan Times:
RIYADH BOMBINGS KILL AT LEAST 29,INCLUDING FIVE JORDANIANS.
RIYADH (AFP & Petra) — At least 29 people, including five Jordanians, died in suicide car bombings blamed on the Al Qaeda terror network that devastated three expatriate compounds in Riyadh, officials said Tuesday, warning that the toll could be higher. US President George W. Bush, meanwhile, vowed to be relentless in the war on terrorism and to hunt down those responsible for the "despicable" attacks.
The Saudi interior ministry gave the figure of 29 deaths, including seven Americans and nine suicide bombers, and said 194 more were wounded in the attacks Monday night.
But a State Department official in Washington later said "we have counted more than 90 dead. These are very preliminary numbers."
However, other US officials backed off the high toll and said the final figure would likely be closer to the Saudi estimate once the rubble was cleared to find any more bodies.
In Amman, a senior official said five Jordanians, including two children from the same family, were killed in the overnight suicide bombings on the expatriate compounds in Riyadh.
"Five Jordanians, including two children from the same family, a boy and a girl, were killed in the Riyadh attacks," the official told AFP.
He said the three adults were all men, and that one of them had dual Jordanian-Saudi nationality.
His Majesty King Abdullah directed that a plane be sent to Riyadh so that the bodies of the Jordanian victims be repatriated.
Earlier, the Saudi interior ministry said at least 29 people were killed, including nine bombers and seven Americans, and 194 injured in the attacks.
Among them, it referred to the two Jordanian children.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a tour of a devastated compound housing personnel of US firm Vinnell that "it certainly has all the fingerprints of an Al Qaeda operation.
"It was very well executed and it shows the nature of the enemy we are working against," said Powell, in Riyadh on a tour to push for Middle East peace.
"These are people who were determined to penetrate places like this just for the purpose of killing people in their sleep, killing innocent people ...
"This is criminality, terrorism at its worst, there is no justification in any way shape or form," Powell said of the first major anti-Western attack since the US-led war on Iraq was launched in March.
Back home, Bush said "these despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate, and the United States will find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice."
Prince Abdullah, the Saudi kingdom's de facto ruler, also later visited the site and several of the injured in one of the capital's hospitals.
Shortly after Powell spoke, the Saudi interior ministry announced a toll that 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.
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 ministry said.
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.
The Al Hamra blast claimed the life of Mohammad 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 scene of the attack, 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, told AFP.
A British embassy spokesman 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 he gave no details.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Ben Abdul Aziz said "these explosions were suicide bombings, which are unprecedented in the kingdom" and are linked to a terror cell uncovered in Riyadh last week.
Riyadh announced May 7 it had uncovered a cell of Osama Ben Laden's Al Qaeda network planning planned 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.
Searches of their hideout netted a huge cache of arms, the interior ministry said. Prince Nayef said one fugitive had surrendered to security forces but provided little information about the cell.
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 Mohammad Al Ablaj wrote in an e-mail to the paper.
Burgess said there were reports, which he could not confirm, that a fourth bomb targeted the premises of a US-Saudi joint venture, the Saudi Maintenance Co., or Siyanco, which provides maintenance services for buildings.
The US embassy urged the up to 40,000 Americans residing in the kingdom to stay at home and "away from windows and doors" and to remain vigilant.
The embassy and consulates were closed and Burgess said US citizens should not go to work on Tuesday.
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 Ben Laden, who is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States carried out by 19 Islamist militants, including 15 Saudis.
A Saudi Islamist group believed close to Ben Laden's network called on an Islamist website Sunday for revenge attacks on US interests following the huge arms seizure in Riyadh.
Jordan strongly condemns terrorist attacks AMMAN (Petra) — His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks that killed at least 29 people, including five Jordanians in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh.
In a telephone call to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, His Majesty said Monday evening's blasts which targeted residential compounds caused harm to the image of Islam and its message of mercy and tolerance.
King Abdullah told the Saudi crown prince that “Jordan fully supports any step it might take to fight terrorism and its supporters.”
The King directed that a plane be sent to Riyadh so that the bodies of the Jordanian victims be repatriated.
“What happened in Riyadh makes it an obligation for all Muslims to unite to combat terrorism, extremism and violence, which only serve the interests of the enemy,” the King told Prince Abdullah.
For his part, the prince said the attacks would not deter his country from pursuing its anti-terrorism drive.
Earlier, Minister of State for Political Affairs and Minister of Information Mohammad Adwan described the blasts as “a heinous crime that targeted innocent people in their homes.”
He said the attacks were aimed at destabilising Saudi Arabia and that they are “another reminder of the need to join ranks and double efforts to fight these unlawful criminals who have embraced terrorism, murder and violence as a lifestyle.”
Adwan, who is also government spokesperson, said Islam rejects such criminal acts, which tarnish the image of the religion and its followers.
He voiced Jordan's support for Saudi Arabia, saying Jordan is ready to place all its potentials at the disposal of Riyadh in its battle “with the forces of evil, darkness, treachery and terrorism.”
