Militants set off car bombs, clash with police in Riyadh

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Militants launched coordinated car bombings and battled security forces in the Saudi capital Wednesday night in attacks that killed eight people, caused oil prices to jump and signaled that Islamic extremists are keeping up their fight despite the kingdom's crackdown on al-Qaida.

A car bomb detonated near the Interior Ministry in central Riyadh -- killing a bystander, according to Saudi TV -- followed soon after by an explosion when suicide attackers tried to bomb a troop recruitment center.

The gunmen who set off the ministry blast by remote control then fled and battled police in northern Riyadh in a fight that killed seven militants, a police official said.

The attacks came two weeks after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called on his followers to focus attacks on his homeland. While damage to the Interior Ministry was minor, it was a bold assault on the government body at the center of Saudi Arabia's war on al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists.

The violence sparked a jump in oil prices in afternoon trading in New York, helping push the price of a barrel of light crude up nearly two dollars to $43.64.

The explosions took place at night, when few employees were at the ministry or the recruitment center. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told Saudi television the number of victims was not large, particularly given the explosions took place in heavily populated areas, but gave no numbers.

Past militant attacks -- including some claimed by al-Qaida -- appeared designed to maximize casualties, but drew heavy criticism when many of the dead were Arab and Muslim.

A nighttime attack focused on targets associated with Saudi security forces could have been meant to underline militants' opposition to the government while avoiding killing civilians.

Extremists have carried out a number of attacks recently -- but not on the scale of dramatic operations early this year and last year that killed dozens.

Early Wednesday, a suspected militant was killed in Riyadh after tossing a bomb and shooting at security agents, according to a security official. On Tuesday, another suspect and a bystander were killed in a shootout in the same Riyadh neighborhood, according to an Interior Ministry official. One suspect was captured in that attack.

But on Dec. 6, militants said to belong to al-Qaida's branch in the kingdom attacked the U.S. consulate in Jiddah, killing nine people.

Ten days later, bin Laden issued his audiotape -- his first message in years directed specifically at Saudis. He praised those who carried out the consulate raid and urged his followers to attack the kingdom's oil installations to weaken both the West and the Saudi royal family.

Saudi forces have cracked down heavily on al-Qaida -- killing and arresting a large number of its suspected top figures in the country -- after the large attacks early in the year.

In May, gunmen attacked oil company compounds in Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh, and killed 22 people, 19 of them foreigners. Earlier the same month, attackers stormed the offices of an American company in Yanbu, 220 miles north of Jiddah, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. All four attackers died in a shootout after a police chase in which they dragged the body of an American from the bumper of their car.

On April 21, a suicide bomber hit a government building in Riyadh, killing five peole. In November 2003, a suicide bombing at a Riyadh housing compound killed 17 people, most of them Muslims working in Saudi Arabia.