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Al qaeda aimds topple saudi royals { November 10 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=401508§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=401508§ion=news
Al Qaeda aims to topple Saudi royals
Mon 10 November, 2003 15:58
By Dominic Evans
RIYADH (Reuters) - A U.S. official says the al Qaeda network is trying to topple the pro-Western Saudi government and royal family, but Riyadh has vowed militants will not destabilise the world's biggest oil exporter.
"It is quite clear to me that al Qaeda wants to take down the royal family and the government of Saudi Arabia," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Al Arabiya television, excerpts of which were broadcast on Monday.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group is suspected of staging a suicide attack on Sunday that killed at least 18 people and wounded 120 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. In May, a triple suicide bombing on a Riyadh housing complex killed 35 people.
A witness said Saudi rescuers pulled one more body from under the rubble on Monday, bringing the toll to 18 killed.
A compound resident said the two attackers came in a car with army markings and were not stopped at a military checkpoint leading up to the compound. When they reached the main entrance they shot a security guard and one other man, an Indian.
Armitage said Sunday's attack was shocking but noted Saudi security forces had gone on the offensive since May.
"So from our point of view, the authorities are working 24/7 to try to better the situation," he said, noting the difficulty was that the defenders must "be right 100 percent of the time and the terrorists only have to be right once".
Washington has been pressing Saudi Arabia to combat al Qaeda, believed responsible for the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001. Fifteen out of the 19 attackers were Saudis.
Saudi officials said they would hunt down those behind the Sunday attack and, along with Washington, blamed al Qaeda.
"(The attack is) a sign of desperation and not the sign...of someone who is going to succeed in upsetting the social balance or the political structure of the country," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, told Reuters.
The bombers on Sunday posed as police and blew up an explosives-rigged car in the Muhaya compound in Riyadh.
TIGHTER SECURITY
Security has been stepped up for diplomats and on Western residences in Riyadh. Many compounds for expatriates, who hold key jobs in the kingdom's oil industry and military programmes, already resemble army camps from the outside.
Ringed by up to 50 soldiers from Saudi Arabia's national guard, the compounds' high perimeter walls are topped by razor wire, surrounded with concrete blocks and monitored by closed circuit television. Some have machine guns at the gate and armoured vehicles covered by netting near the entrance.
Armitage, who arrived in Riyadh on Sunday, told reporters: "I can't say that last night's attack was the only or the last attack. My view is these al Qaeda terrorists -- and I believe it was al Qaeda -- would prefer to have many such events."
A Saudi security source in Riyadh also said the attack was an "al Qaeda operation".
The blast came only days after Western nations issued fresh terror alerts and Washington shut its missions in the kingdom.
Western embassies in Saudi Arabia urged their nationals to remain vigilant after the attacks.
The U.S. embassy said in an advisory on Monday it and the consulates in the kingdom will remain closed to the public until further notice, pending further security assessment.
It however relaxed its restrictions on movement, saying its personnel and their dependants in Riyadh "are no longer confined to the diplomatic quarter and may move about Riyadh."
Interior Minister Prince Nayef said the kingdom would not be shaken by the attack and pledged to "get the perpetrators, no matter how long it takes".
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