Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2003)
Nation & World News 17 dead in Saudi bombing Al-Qaida is being blamed for the car bombing near Riyadh that killed 17 and injured 122 on Saturday By Evan Osnos Chicago Tribune (KRT) CAIRO — Saudi and U.S. authori ties Sunday blamed al-Qaida for the car bombing at a residential com pound in Riyadh on Saturday night that killed 17 people, including five children, and injured 122. The attack left the Saudi regime dig ging out from the second major sui cide bombing in the capital in the last sue months and facing the reality that al-Qaida appears to have survived a tough crackdown. The bombing Saturday struck a complex of villas on the capital's west ern edge that housed mostly foreign Arab workers, authorities said, and most of the victims were Lebanese, Egyptian and Sudanese. No Americans were killed, but several were treated for injuries, ac cording to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. The embassy, which had closed last week amid warnings of an imminent attack, on Sunday re mained shuttered indefinitely, as of ficials urged U.S. citizens to stay near their homes. "American diplomats are limiting our movements in Riyadh to our own neighborhood, the diplomatic quar ter," embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said. Coordinated and well-equipped, the attack bore similarities to bomb ings in Riyadh on May 12 that killed 35 people, including eight Americans, and injured nearly 200 people. Since that incident, Saudi authorities have launched a wave of raids on al-Qaida cells, arresting more than 600 suspect ed militants and seizing caches of guns and explosives. Saudi officials on Sunday cast the recent attack as an act of “desper ation." "We know how they organize. We have captured their equipment. We have captured their leaders," said a senior Saudi official. 'They knew they couldn't bring trucks into the middle of the city, so they had to find something on the edge of the desert." In Riyadh for a previously sched uled visit, U S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he was "personally quite sure" Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network was behind the attack "because this attack bears the hallmark of them." Analysts say the latest bombing underscores the mounting struggle between the Saudi royal family and the global network of Islamic mili tants that condemns its friendship with the West. "The government campaign cer tainly seems to have ferreted out some people, (forcing them) to take these operations as quickly as they can," said Mamoun Fandy, an expert on Saudi affairs in Washing ton, D.C. "Another reading would be that Saudi Arabia is feeling an in flux of transnational groups who are moving across borders and opening new fronts." Citing unnamed sources in Wash ington, the London-based Arabic dai ly Al Sharq Al Awsat reported Satur day that 3,000 suspected militants have been arrested in the past three months trying to enter Saudi Arabia from Iraq. Saudi authorities concede they have been unable to staunch a flow of illegal weapons traffic over the border from neighboring Yemen, which one Saudi official described as the source of '90 percent of the weapons we are seeing." Since the May bombing, the regime has pursued a two-pronged approach to stemming the source of militant threats, cracking down on suspected cells while introducing measures of political and social reform. The government has gingerly acted to rein in radical clerics, suspending 2,000 imams for voicing rhetoric that it labeled intolerant. Five hundred have been removed permanently, while 1,500 have been referred to ed ucational programs. The government also announced plans last month to hold its first-ever municipal elections in the next year. Armitage urged the Saudi govern ment to stay the course of democra tization. 'We have the utmost faith that the direction chosen for this nation by Crown Prince Abdullah, the political and economic reforms, will not be swayed by these horrible terrorists," he said. The attack came just one day after the U.S. F.mbassy shut its offices throughout the country, citing 'cred ible information" about imminent terrorist attacks. Saudi authorities said the warning came from a joint task force of U.S. and Saudi investi gators that was formed after the May attacks. "As soon as we knew an attack was coming, we warned all the com pounds," the Saudi official said. "The indication was that we knew it would be between Friday or Saturday and Tuesday, but we could not know where they would hit." (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. rQfESMGliac /Of// Tuesday, November 11 - Thursday, November 13 10AM - 4PM • EMU All books und^j^ Are moderate or severe headaches making your life a pain? If so, consider joining our research study. If you suffer from moderate or severe headaches, you may be eligible to participate in a clinical research study of a medication for migraines. Eligible participants must be between 18 and 65 years of age. Office visits, study procedures, and study medication will be provided at no cost. Reimbursement for travel and other study-related expenses may be provided. For more information about this study, please contact: 541.434.0346 755 E. 11th St, Eugene, OR RESEARCH Need a job? The ASUO Elections Board■•■■■.Learn about the may be for you! democratic process and help organize student elections. 014984 Applications available outside Suite 4 EMU QUESTIONS? Contact Stephanie Day at 346-0629. DEADLINE: Applications must be returned to the ASUO Administrative Assistant by The ASUO is an affirmative action/equal opportunity/ Americans with Disabilities Act employer (AA/EOE/ADA) 5 pm Wed., November 12th.
