A car caught in the cross-fire of the shooting near the British Embassy in Sanaa

RIYADH, September 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Saudi authorities insisted Monday, September 30, that the car bomb in which a German man died Sunday, September 29 - the latest in a series of mystery blasts to kill Western expatriates in the kingdom - was not a terrorist attack.

But anxiety is high among tens of thousands of Westerners working in the oil-rich kingdom, particularly since Riyadh has not disclosed the outcome of investigations into the string of similar explosions, diplomats said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“There are no terror attacks against foreigners in our country. They (foreigners) are well looked after,” Saudi intelligence chief Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz told Al-Jazira newspaper.

Prince Nawaf said Sunday’s explosion was part of a feud among people involved in illegal trade, usually a reference to alcohol sales which is strictly banned in the Muslim kingdom.

“What is happening is ... score settling and feuds between groups competing in illegal trade and immoral issues,” Prince Nawaf said.

“These incidents and blasts can not be attributed to any particular group or person,” he added.

Deputy governor of Riyadh Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz also ruled out any terror link to the explosion telling AFP, “it was not politically motivated.”

German national W. Maximilian Graf, 56, an employee of a private communications company, was killed in the Saudi capital when an explosion ripped through his car.

The blast happened during the afternoon in northern Riyadh just 100 metres (yards) from where a car bomb killed a Briton two years ago, said AFP.

Christopher Rodway, 47, died and his wife, Jane, was slightly injured on November 17, 2000.

A car bomb also killed a Briton in June, and there was a similar blast in March 2001 that left one Briton dead and wounded several people.

Saudi authorities have indicated the Westerners were implicated in a turf war between alcohol smugglers, but diplomats cast serious doubts on the theory and believe the bombs do target the Western presence in the kingdom.

“I find the statements by Saudi authorities somewhat unusual,” a Western diplomat told AFP Monday.

“It is so because there has been no result on previous incidents, which targeted Westerners, although they happened long ago,” said the diplomat, who requested anonymity.

“Westerners here are certainly concerned. You are bound to be concerned when you have nothing about the (previous) incidents and the perpetrators,” he added, reported AFP.

U.S. and British embassies and most other Western missions in the Saudi capital have urged their nationals to remain vigilant to the “growing concern that individuals may be planning terrorist actions.”

Westerners who are concentrated in the main cities and normally live in closed residential compounds are advised to “follow sensible security precautions particularly regarding vehicle security.”

The arrest in June of a dozen Saudis with suspected links to the Islamist Al-Qaeda “terror” network unnerved Western nationals even further despite repeated affirmations by Saudi authorities that the country was safe.

Besides the two bomb blasts on June 20 and September 29, a number of smaller incidents targeting Westerners took place during the summer.

On June 29, an explosive device was discovered underneath the vehicle of an American citizen and his spouse. In early June, several shots were fired near a BAE Systems compound in Tabuk, north of Saudi Arabia.

Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian are in Saudi jails waiting trial after “confessing” to blasts that took place two years ago which the authorities linked to alcohol smuggling.

In another incident, four people, including at least two policemen, were killed and another four wounded Sunday, September 29, in a gun battle outside of the British embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, witnesses said.

However, official sources gave a completely different version of events, denying the embassy was targeted in the shooting and mentioning no dead.

They said only three members of the security forces had been wounded in a gun battle that erupted when police asked some tribesmen for their weapons.

“The incident happened by a banquet hall near the embassy which was not targeted,” a Yemeni official source said, adding the shootout started “when police asked members of the tribe to give up the weapons they were carrying.”

The official account appeared to contradict that of embassy staff and witnesses who said four people were killed, including a bus driver, two policemen and possibly a third police officer.

One embassy staff member said the shooting started when “embassy guards asked two cars to move along after they stopped in front of the embassy gate.”   

“Moments later all hell broke lose,” the staff member added.

Other witnesses said members of the Hashed tribe, whose chief Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahamr is Yemen’s parliamentary speaker, had tried to move cement barricades off the road leading to the British embassy, forcing security forces to open fire on them.

Among the wounded was Kahtan bin Abdullah Al-Ahmar, the parliamentary speaker’s son, and another tribe member, they said.

Embassy staff who had offices with windows on the main street had been evacuated after windows were hit by bullets during the shootout.

The fighting lasted for more than 30 minutes and police had encircled the area, witnesses said.

Security has been increased at the U.S. and British embassies in the past two months in Yemen, a mainly tribal society in which many men routinely carry guns.

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