Fears were growing last night that a bombing which killed at least 17 people in Saudi Arabia could herald a new wave of attacks by al-Qaeda sympathisers throughout the Middle East.
Anonymous postings on Arabic websites over the last three to four weeks have hinted at ”a wave of violence coming on quite a big scale”, Saudi dissident Saad al-Fagih said yesterday.
Fagih, who runs the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, added that the postings did not specify Saudi Arabia. ”They mentioned big, multiple attacks ‘to harm the enemy’, as they say.”
His view was echoed by Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, who arrived in Riyadh hours after the blasts. ”I can’t say that last night’s attack was the only or the last attack,” he said. ”My view is these al-Qaeda terrorists — and I believe it was al-Qaida – would prefer to have many such events.”
There was little doubt in Riyadh that this latest attack was linked to al-Qaida, but many felt that the bomb’s indiscriminate targeting would damage Osama bin Laden’s cause. At least 13 of those killed were Arabs, as were most of the 122 injured, and ordinary Saudis would view the attack as repugnant because it came during the holy month of Ramadan, said Khalid al-Maeena, editor of the Saudi daily Arab News.
Five children were among those who died when car bombers, apparently disguised as members of the security forces, shot their way into a housing compound in the capital late on Saturday and triggered up to three explosions.
The attack came hours after the US had closed its diplomatic missions in the kingdom following what it said was ”credible information” that terrorists had ”moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks”.
Simultaneously Britain warned of a high risk that western targets in neighbouring Bahrain and Qatar could be attacked, as well as a significant risk in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Last week, the US state department issued a warning of threats to ships and aircraft throughout the Middle East, including the Red Sea, the Gulf, the Arabian peninsula and North Africa.
This was followed on Friday by a statement from the homeland security department, based on information from ”a single source overseas”, that al-Qaeda might attempt to hijack a commercial cargo plane.
Witnesses of Saturday night’s attack at al-Muhaya housing complex near the heavily guarded diplomatic quarter of Riyadh said one large explosion was followed by two smaller ones.
Although residents of Saudi compounds enjoy a more westernised lifestyle than is normal in the kingdom, al-Muhaya had no obvious American connections and its occupants are a mixture of nationalities. ”They are ordinary, middle-class people working for companies,” said Maeena. – Guardian Unlimited Â