Friday, 23 April 2004 |
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Bush suggests al Qaeda behind Saudi attack WASHINGTON, Thursday (Reuters) President George W. Bush appeared to suggest on Wednesday that al Qaeda was behind a suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia and said the goal seemed to be to overthrow the royal government. A suicide car bomber destroyed a Saudi security forces building in Riyadh on Wednesday. It killed four people and wounded 148 in the first major attack on a Saudi government target. Bush told newspaper editors a previous attack in Saudi Arabia persuaded the royal government to strengthen its battle against al Qaeda. "This is a place when they got attacked a year ago that helped change their attitude toward chasing down al Qaeda types within their country. And the attack again today on Riyadh was a reminder that there are people that would like - I don't want to guess their intentions - I think they would like to overthrow the ruling government," Bush said. "They certainly want to frighten everybody and kill as many as they can," he said. Saudi officials were confident the bomber fit the pattern of an al Qaeda operation. Asked why he thought al Qaeda's fingerprints were on the bombing, a Saudi official told reporters: "Who else sends suicide bombers to blow up cars in the midst of urban centers? Who else has publicly said we are going after the Saudi state? ... Who else has publicly said they are planning to do more of these things? You put it all together and that's the end of it." "We have no doubt," said the official, who spoke to U.S. reporters by telephone from Saudi Arabia and who insisted on anonymity. Al Qaeda is the network led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. The official said the bomb exploded about 100 feet (30 meters) from one gate of a building that houses the department of public safety, where Saudis renew their driver's licenses. The official said the building was formerly headquarters of the Saudi security forces and that some security forces remain there, but at the other end from where the bomb went off. |
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