The attacks left 34 deaths, including 8 Americans

RIYADH, May 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Saudi Arabia faced  a barrage of criticisms from the United States Thursday, May 15, that it did too little to prevent the triple bombings in Riyadh after Washington had sent a presidential envoy to warn the kingdom of an imminent attack.

Riyadh vowed to clamp down on terror in the kingdom after Monday night's blasts that ripped through three expatriate compounds and which it said were carried out by 15 Saudis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

With the Al-Qaeda network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden held responsible, Saudi newspapers urged the government to treat May 12, the day of the attacks, as the United States treated September 11, 2001.

The similarity between the two incidents was highlighted by Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal, who said the bombings had been carried out by the same number of assailants as those who attacked Washington and New York.

"Fifteen Saudis did what they did in the attacks in the United States and 15 Saudis did the attacks here," he told a press conference Wednesday, May 14, referring to 15 out of 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks against the United States.

The Riyadh bombings killed at least 34 people, including nine bombers, and wounded 194 others, according to the latest toll from the Saudi interior ministry.

The State Department in Washington said eight U.S. citizens were killed, and 17 more are now hospitalized, including at least one in critical condition.

Inadequate

The United States chided Saudi Arabia over the bombings, warning that the kingdom "must deal" with terrorists within its borders.

But American officials took pains to avoid alienating the country now feared to be the epicenter of Al-Qaeda activity, shunning direct attacks even as they made clear they did not think Riyadh's response to recent threats had been adequate.

"We have had good cooperation with the Saudi government, and I am sure that in the wake of this terrible incident in Riyadh that we will seek to intensify our cooperation," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said the Al-Qaeda network was "the leading suspect" behind the attacks and said Riyadh must "do more" to root out terrorists at home. But other officials urged to wait and see the outcome of investigations, now jointly carried out by the Saudis and Americans.

But Fleischer also pointedly read aloud from a May 1 State Department alert warning Americans that Washington believed terrorists were in "the final phases" of plotting attacks in the kingdom.

Recalling that warning and a similar advisory issued a day earlier by the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Washington's ambassador to Saudi Arabia said he wished the Saudis had acted more promptly on those concerns.

"I obviously would have preferred a quicker response to our requests for additional security at these compounds," the envoy, Robert Jordan, told NBC television.

The U.S. network ABC also reported Wednesday that the Saudi government failed to provide the extra urgent security requested after specific U.S. warnings of an imminent attack.

The network reported that by Saturday, May 10, a U.S. government security team had identified the Jedawal compound in Riyadh as a potential attack target, and asked for more security there, including machine-gun mounted vehicles.

A disclosure was made in Washington that a presidential envoy, named as Stephen Hadley, went to Riyadh last week to deliver the warning of an imminent attack.

Saudis' September 11

“This is equal to us to the New York bombing, so it is something of that level for us in Saudi Arabia," Prince Saud

Meanwhile, the Saudi foreign minister said he hoped "accusations in the United States about the responsibility of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 tragedy will cease," adding that "nobody can hold us responsible for attacking our country."  

Saying the Riyadh bombings are equal to the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Saudi Minister reiterated the kingdom's resolve to fight terror.

"This is equal to us to the New York bombing, so it is something of that level for us in Saudi Arabia," Prince Saud told NBC's "Today" show.

He also said the attacks should dispel any U.S. doubts over Saudi Arabia’s commitment to fighting terrorism.

"It will reinforce the commonality between our two countries," the prince said

"International terrorism is threatening the security of all of us. We must coordinate efforts ... to fight against terrorism in all its shapes and forms.

Riyadh announced May 7 it had uncovered an al-Qaeda cell planning 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. A huge weapons cache was found.

The U.S. embassy in Riyadh and consulates general in Dhahran and Jeddah were closed Wednesday for the second day amid high tension and shock among the seven-million-strong expatriate community.

Washington has ordered non-essential diplomats and the families of all U.S. embassy and consular personnel to leave the kingdom after the devastating attacks.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile offered no explanation for conflicting death tolls after the interior ministry revised its figures upwards to 34 dead.

That added five more to a previous Saudi toll -- one Briton, one Irish national, an Australian of Lebanese origin, a third Filipino and one unidentified corpse.

The interior ministry had Tuesday, May 12, set the total at 29 killed and 194 wounded.

It listed the dead as seven Saudis, seven Americans, two Jordanian children, two Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Swiss, in addition to the nine charred bodies believed to be the attackers.