Riyadh, November 9
At least 11 persons, including an Indian, four Egyptians and four Lebanese, were killed in a midnight suicide bombing that ripped through a residential compound west of Riyadh, diplomats and officials said today.
An Egyptian mother, father and two children perished in the blast and were found today under the debris, Cairo’s Embassy told AFP.
Four Lebanese, including a woman and two children, also died in the blast and 24 Lebanese were wounded, some of them critically, Lebanon’s Embassy said here as the toll rose during the day.
Another 99 were wounded.
Saudi officials blamed the Al-Qaida terror network for the
attack.
DUBAI: Unspecified number of gunmen in an explosive-laden car fired at guards and broke into the fortified compound close to the royal palace and the diplomatic quarters housing foreign embassies, triggering at least three blasts in less than a minute around 0200 hours IST, hours after the USA closed its diplomatic missions in the kingdom following “credible” intelligence reports that Al-Qaida might strike.
Initially there were conflicting reports about the toll from a Riyadh hospital which earlier said many were killed and later said
“only a number” of people died without specifying the figure.An official said the carnage bore the hallmarks of the Al-Qaida network.
The method in which the bombing was executed is similar to that used in the May 12 bombings of three residential compounds which killed 35 persons here, including the nine attackers.
“This confirms that those who carried out the bombing belong to the Al-Qaida movement,” he told AFP.
The attack comes two days after two terrorists blew themselves up in Mecca while a militant was gunned down in Riyadh.
Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said there was no confirmation of any Indian casualty in the Saturday night blasts in Riyadh where reports said one Indian guard was among five people killed.
— AFP, PTI
