Zombie
15th May 2003, 06:03
Naharnet.com
Beirut, 14 May 2003
Saudi Arabia and the United States have vowed to hunt down Osama bin Laden's terrorist masterminds who engineered the suicide car-bomb attacks on American living compounds in Riyadh as the two countries gave conflicting reports about the victims of the bloodbath.
"We will find them and they will taste American justice," President Bush said. He admitted, however, that one half of bin Laden's Al Qaida network was still at large despite the war in Afghanistan.
Bush's pledge did not still a choir of protests from politicians across the U.S., contending that Al Qaida's survival of the war was proof that the United States should have concentrated its military might to finishing off the group instead of invading Iraq.
Saudi Crown Prince Abullah bin Abdul Aziz, the effective ruler of the kingdom, pledged to strike with an iron fist to root out terrorism from the world's largest oil-exporting country.
"There is no room for terrorism. It will be decisively deterred and suppressed," the Crown Prince said in a televised address to the nation Tuesday, which was splashed across An Nahar's page-one Wednesday.
"We particularly warn against giving the killers religious justification. Any one who offers such cover will be treated as an accomplice and will take the same penalty as that of the actual perpetrators," Abdullah said. The penalty for murder in the kingdom is beheading by a sword executioner.
The conflict in casualty figures was initiated by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who said 91 people were killed in the car-bomb assaults late night Monday and early Tuesday in the Saudi capital. More than 200 were inured, he said.
But the State Department hastened to "revise" the figures, saying the toll was closer to the official Saudi estimation, which had said 29 people, including seven Americans, were killed and 194 from various nationalities were injured. At midday Wednesday, however, the Saudi Interior Ministry put the death toll at 34, saying one of the 5 new victims was an Australian of Lebanese origin.
In Beirut, Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said two Lebanese were among the casualties: Jihad Dalloul who was killed and Khalil Aytani who was wounded. Seven Saudis, two Indians and one Australian were among the dead, too.
The Saudi government said there were nine bodies charred beyond recognition and believed to be the corpses of the attackers who crashed three car-bombs into the housing compounds on Riyadh's eastern flank, gunning down several Saudi guards as they shot their way in.
Saudi and U.S. authorities blamed the attack on bin Laden's Al Qaida network, on the strength of a statement it made through the London-based Al Majallah magazine on May 10, announcing that preparations have been completed for a major operation in Saudi Arabia.
Source (http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&2AA447D2018AA82E42256D2600326A56)
Beirut, 14 May 2003
Saudi Arabia and the United States have vowed to hunt down Osama bin Laden's terrorist masterminds who engineered the suicide car-bomb attacks on American living compounds in Riyadh as the two countries gave conflicting reports about the victims of the bloodbath.
"We will find them and they will taste American justice," President Bush said. He admitted, however, that one half of bin Laden's Al Qaida network was still at large despite the war in Afghanistan.
Bush's pledge did not still a choir of protests from politicians across the U.S., contending that Al Qaida's survival of the war was proof that the United States should have concentrated its military might to finishing off the group instead of invading Iraq.
Saudi Crown Prince Abullah bin Abdul Aziz, the effective ruler of the kingdom, pledged to strike with an iron fist to root out terrorism from the world's largest oil-exporting country.
"There is no room for terrorism. It will be decisively deterred and suppressed," the Crown Prince said in a televised address to the nation Tuesday, which was splashed across An Nahar's page-one Wednesday.
"We particularly warn against giving the killers religious justification. Any one who offers such cover will be treated as an accomplice and will take the same penalty as that of the actual perpetrators," Abdullah said. The penalty for murder in the kingdom is beheading by a sword executioner.
The conflict in casualty figures was initiated by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who said 91 people were killed in the car-bomb assaults late night Monday and early Tuesday in the Saudi capital. More than 200 were inured, he said.
But the State Department hastened to "revise" the figures, saying the toll was closer to the official Saudi estimation, which had said 29 people, including seven Americans, were killed and 194 from various nationalities were injured. At midday Wednesday, however, the Saudi Interior Ministry put the death toll at 34, saying one of the 5 new victims was an Australian of Lebanese origin.
In Beirut, Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said two Lebanese were among the casualties: Jihad Dalloul who was killed and Khalil Aytani who was wounded. Seven Saudis, two Indians and one Australian were among the dead, too.
The Saudi government said there were nine bodies charred beyond recognition and believed to be the corpses of the attackers who crashed three car-bombs into the housing compounds on Riyadh's eastern flank, gunning down several Saudi guards as they shot their way in.
Saudi and U.S. authorities blamed the attack on bin Laden's Al Qaida network, on the strength of a statement it made through the London-based Al Majallah magazine on May 10, announcing that preparations have been completed for a major operation in Saudi Arabia.
Source (http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&2AA447D2018AA82E42256D2600326A56)