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.