3 explosions by al-Qaida rock Saudis

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital Saturday night, killing an undetermined number of people and wounding 86, in what a government official said was a suicide car bombing.

The attack came a day after the U.S. Embassy warned that terror attacks could be imminent in the tense Gulf kingdom, and America's three diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed Saturday as a result.

Just before the midnight blasts, an unknown number of attackers broke into the upscale compound of about 200 houses, a Saudi official said, and gunfire was heard. It was unclear if three individual bombs had detonated or whether it was one that set off multiple explosions.

An Interior Ministry official said early today the attack was a suicide car bombing, and that two security guards were killed and 86 people wounded. The official said he believed it was carried out by al-Qaida because of similarities to a May 12 attack in the capital that killed 35 people.

Immediately after the explosion Saturday night, there were widely conflicting reports of the number of dead. An official at a Riyadh hospital said dozens of people were killed, but, when contacted again, said only that some people were dead.

600 al-Qaida arrests

Saudi Arabia has been working with the United States to crack down terrorism since the May attack, and have arrested about 600 people believed linked to al-Qaida. In addition, fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudis.

The U.S. warning on Friday came a day after two suspected militants, believed to be members of the Mecca cell, blew themselves up to avoid arrest. A third suspect was killed in a shootout with security forces in Riyadh.

Huge flames were seen leaping into the night sky as helicopters hovered overhead, beaming search lights down onto the bomb ravaged area. Witnesses said four homes were demolished, and the charred hulks of at least six vehicles sat nearby.

TV footage showed a large crater, apparently gouged out by an explosion, as emergency workers poured over the bomb blast site, which security forces had sealed off.

A woman living in the compound said in a telephone interview that "there is lot of blood" at the scene of the explosions.

"I am extremely terrified; I am really scared. I felt it was an earthquake," the woman said without identifying herself.

"Lots of houses are damaged, windows shattered," she said, adding that police sirens wailed throughout the compound. "Ambulances were picking up lots of people."

Al-Arabiya television later reported that four people, including one child, were killed. It also reported that the bodies of the attackers had been found, but didn't say how many there were.

But others put the toll higher. Rabie Hadeka, a resident inside the compound, told Al-Arabiya that "about 20 to 30 people have been killed and 50 to 60 injured."

She told Al-Arabiya that "shattered glass was spread everywhere after we heard three very strong explosions."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt said from Washington that one American was wounded and one was unaccounted for. The U.S. Embassy was to remain closed Sunday and American diplomats will restrict their movements to the diplomatic quarter, about three miles away.

Diplomats and officials said most of the residents of the compound's 200 houses were Lebanese. Some Saudis also live there, plus a few German, French and Italian families.

Officials at the King Khaled Specialist Hospital and the King Faisal Special Hospital & Research Center said the two hospitals received 38 wounded people.

Al-Arabiya showed shots of wailing children and bloodied men and women being treated at hospitals. It later reported that the injured included three Americans and three Canadians of Arab origin.

The Saudi government official said the explosions took place in the Muhaya compound. He said the attackers traded fire with the guards and he said there were apparently three explosions.

He said most of the wounded were believed to be children because their parents were out shopping during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day and have dinners and parties late into the night.

In the latest attack, diplomats reported one big explosion about midnight, followed by two smaller ones 15 seconds apart. Dozens of police cars and ambulances raced toward the site of the blasts, sirens wailing, and helicopters hovered overhead. Traffic was tied up across the city.

Hanadi al-Ghandaki, manager of the targeted compound, told al-Arabiya that about 100 people were wounded, mostly children "because most adults were outside the compound at that time."

Police said the explosions were three miles from an entrance to the Saudi capital's diplomatic quarter.

"We heard a very strong explosion and we saw the fire," Bassem al-Hourani, who said he was a resident at the targeted compound, told Al-Arabiya.

"I heard screams of the children and women. I don't know what happened to my friends, if anybody was injured," he said. "All the glass in my house were shattered."

Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, toured the site early Sunday.

Almost all the foreign embassies in Riyadh -- including the U.S. Embassy -- and most diplomats' homes are inside the diplomatic quarter, an isolated neighborhood whose entrances are guarded. But there are several residential compounds housing Western business people relatively near the diplomatic quarter.

A Western diplomat said he got a call from a friend who reported seeing smoke rising from a building on the other side of the diplomatic quarter near an area where the palaces of the royal family's senior princes are located. There was no further information on the report.

The city's main palaces, including those of senior princes and the king's sprawling Riyadh residence, are just outside the east side of the diplomatic quarter. Each of the palaces is behind a high wall, with automatic gates for cars to drive through, and guards.