U.S. National Arrested For Anti-British Blasts In Saudi
RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi police have arrested a U.S. national in connection with two anti-British bomb attacks that killed one person and wounded four others last month in Riyadh, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The American, named as Michael Sedlak, was suspected of having ordered the bombings, said Al-Watan.
The U.S. embassy confirmed the arrest but said no charges had yet been filed. Sedlak, an expatriate who has lived in Saudi Arabia for the past decade, works for a private company, an embassy official said.
"The American is being questioned, and the matter will be clarified in the coming days," he said, declining to explain the arrest. A consular official visited Sedlak last Saturday.
Christopher Rodway, a 47-year-old British national working at a military hospital in the Saudi capital, was killed and his wife Jane injured in the first car bomb attack on November 17th.
Three other Britons were injured in a similar attack on November 23rd.
The Foreign Office in London has said the motives of the two attacks were unclear, although it was "possible" they were linked. No group has claimed responsibility.
Saudi officials have said the attacks appeared to be personal and not politically motivated, although both came amid anti-western sentiment and Arab anger stirred up by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
