|
Two Killed, Including American, in Saudi Blast
RIYADH, Oct 7 (News Agencies) - An American and another foreigner have been killed and a British man injured in a bomb blast in Saudi Arabia, which a U.S. official said was probably unrelated to last month's terror attacks on targets in the U.S.
The deadly blast occurred at around 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) Saturday in front of an electronics store in the eastern Saudi town of Khobar, "killing two people and injuring four others," the official SPA agency quoted the provincial police chief as saying.
"All the victims are foreign residents," the police chief added, without providing their nationalities.
A U.S. embassy official in Riyadh told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a U.S. national was killed and another seriously hurt in the explosion reportedly caused when a man threw a package bomb into the busy shopping area.
"One American was killed and one other seriously injured, both of them civilians, in the blast in Khobar," the official, who requested anonymity, said early Sunday.
Local authorities were trying to identify the second corpse, which was badly mutilated, according to a witness.
The foreign office in London said that a British man was among the injured.
Diplomats have visited the man, who has "superficial injuries", a British spokeswoman said.
Local police sources had earlier told AFP that four people were killed in the blast, including a U.S. citizen and a Briton.
Police have launched an enquiry to determine the cause of the blast.
In Washington, a U.S. official said the blast appeared, on early information, to be an "isolated incident" unconnected to the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11th which left an estimated 6,000 people dead.
"Based on first reports this appears to be an isolated incident not related to September 11th, but we are continuing to collect facts and information," an administration official said on condition of anonymity.
A State Department official said he was unable to confirm that an American was among the victims of the blast, although a U.S. citizen had been injured.
"We can confirm there was an explosion in Khobar," the official told AFP. "We don't know the cause of it but we are working with the Saudi authorities to determine what happened."
There was no immediate indication as to who planted the bomb.
Tension has risen in the region since the hijack attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which Washington blames on Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.
There is a history of anti-U.S. attacks in Saudi Arabia.
In June 1996, 19 members of the U.S. air force were killed when a bomb placed in a lorry exploded near a residential neighborhood inhabited by U.S. troops from the Dhahran base, near Khobar.
Washington blamed that blast, the deadliest anti-American attack in Saudi Arabia, on bin Laden.
In addition, at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Saudi Arabia was rocked by a series of bomb blasts.
Diplomats in Riyadh and Saudi newspapers said at the time that the attacks were linked to alcohol trafficking. Selling and drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia.
Last December, British Coca-Cola employee David Brown was seriously injured in a car bomb attack in Khobar.
On January 10th, an explosion in a commercial center in Riyadh produced no casualties, while another blast in the capital in March slightly injured a Briton and an Egyptian.
Saturday's blast comes on the heels of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday to shore up support for Washington's "war against terrorism".
Diplomats said Riyadh has been "reassured" Washington is not seeking the use of military facilities on its soil for an offensive against Afghanistan where prime suspect bin Laden is in hiding.
The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia is a key grievance of bin Laden, who charges that the Americans are desecrating the land of Mecca, home of Islam's holiest places in the west of the kingdom.
|
