Saudi Arabia tests civil defense sirens

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Sirens wailed throughout Saudi Arabia on Saturday in the kingdom's first test of its civil defense system since the 1991 Gulf War. The trial comes amid rising U.S.-Iraq war rhetoric, but Saudi authorities denied it was linked to the crisis.

Sirens blared during the midday prayer time, but people on the streets barely took notice. A Saudi man in a Riyadh neighborhood shrugged off the test, noting it was widely publicized to avoid raising alarm.

Saudi Civil Defense director general Sa'ad al-Tuweijri said the test had nothing to do with the U.S.-Iraq crisis and heightened American and British rhetoric that war was imminent. Saudi media reported it was the system's first test since 1991.

Unlike in neighboring Kuwait, there haven't been visible war preparations in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Embassy officials in Saudi Arabia have not advised American citizens or organizations to take any special war preparations "because nobody knows that there is going to be a war," said embassy spokesman John Burgess. Everyone, he added, is still hoping war can be avoided.

Foreigners living in the kingdom said they haven't received information from their governments or companies on what to do if an Iraqi Scud missile heads this way. None wished to be identified.

A few acknowledged events of the past few days -- the U.S. deeming Iraq in "material breach" of the latest U.N. resolution and saying it would double its troop presence in the Gulf to around 100,000 by next month -- made them feel for the first time that war may be drawing near. Others said they were not worried yet or that Saudi Arabia wouldn't likely be directly involved.