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Explosion rattles Saudi capital
« on: Nov 8th, 2003, 5:20pm » |
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Explosion rattles Saudi capital
Smoke seen rising from residential compound in western Riyadh
Saturday, November 8, 2003 Posted: 5:45 PM EST (2245 GMT)
(CNN) -- A loud explosion rocked an affluent residential neighborhood in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, one day after the U.S. Embassy announced it would close temporarily over concerns of rising terror threats.
Raid Qusti, Arab News bureau chief for the Saudi capital, said he heard the blast, then ambulance and police sirens. He added that witnesses reported hearing gunfire before the explosion.
Witnesses reported plumes of smoke rising near the capital's diplomatic quarter, Qusti said.
At least two dozen ambulances rushed to the Al-Muhaya compound -- villas housing several hundred residents -- where a large plume of smoke was seen, journalists said. There was no immediate word of casualties.
No U.S. government officials live in the compound -- which lies about three miles from the U.S. Embassy in western Riyadh -- but some U.S. citizens live there, a senior State Department official said.
Most who live in the compound are Arabs, journalists said.
The U.S. Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia said Friday that they would be closed Saturday to at least Monday because of concerns that terrorists were planning an attack in the kingdom.
An advisory released Friday by the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said the embassy "continues to receive credible information that terrorists in Saudi Arabia have moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks in the kingdom."
Before the explosion Saturday, the British Embassy in Bahrain warned its personnel of the threat of a terror attack. Bahrain is an island nation in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. State Department's closures affect the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran.
"The embassy strongly urges all American citizens in Saudi Arabia to be especially vigilant when they're in any area perceived to be American or Western," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday.
Boucher said the "situation has been dangerous, perilous for Americans in Saudi Arabia" and the U.S. government has been working with Saudi authorities since triple bombings in May that targeted apartment complexes housing Westerners left 23 people dead, including nine Americans. Twelve bombers were also killed in the attacks.
Saturday and Sunday are regular work days in Saudi Arabia.
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