Saturday, May 17, 2003
TERROR CELLS AWAKEN
By DAVID JOHNSTON with DON VAN NATTA Jr.
WASHINGTON, May 16 — Leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda have reorganized bases of operations in at least a half-dozen locations, including Kenya, Sudan, Pakistan and Chechnya, senior counterterrorism officials said this week.
The leaders have begun to recruit new members, train the new followers and plan new attacks on Western targets in earnest, according to senior counterterrorism officials in Washington, Europe and the Middle East.
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As evidence of this, senior government officials pointed to the secret arrests in the United States in the last two months of two Arab men suspected of having been sent by senior leaders of Al Qaeda to scout targets for new terror attacks.
The two recently apprehended men, whom the officials would not identify, were said to be conducting "presurveillance" activities. They were part of a larger group of about six Qaeda followers arrested in recent months whose presence in the United States has led the authorities to conclude that the terrorist group remains determined to carry out attacks on American soil, officials said.
The previously undisclosed arrests, along with the deadly bombings in Morocco today and Saudi Arabia this week that bear the earmarks of Al Qaeda, provided what officials in the United States and overseas said were strong indications that Osama bin Laden's network remained a potent threat, despite setbacks like the capture in March of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the network's senior operational commander. "Definitely, their capability has been eroded," said one senior government official, discussing Al Qaeda's ability to carry out attacks. "But they are still a threat, they are still sophisticated, they are still fighting and they are still trying to strike in the United States."
Although Al Qaeda's role in the Riyadh bombings on Monday night has not yet been confirmed, senior counterterrorism officials interviewed this week in the United States and Europe said they suspected the Saudi attacks marked a resurgence from a period of dormancy that began with the American-led invasion of Iraq two months ago.
The officials cited troubling signs that Al Qaeda had opened new training outposts in East Africa and had energized its recruitment efforts.
They also said there was new intelligence indicating that Al Qaeda was in the final planning stages of new attacks, possibly involving aircraft. Britain and the United States issued stark warnings this week about possible terrorist strikes in Saudi Arabia and East Africa.
One government official said such evidence of renewed activity indicated a furious attempt to "re-establish themselves and send loud messages" to the West. The official said he believed that the bombings in Riyadh were an important first step toward accomplishing that goal.
A senior counterterrorism official estimated that Al Qaeda had 3,000 members, far fewer than in the late 1990's, when as many as 20,000 people trained at Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Other officials said numbers were necessarily imprecise because Al Qaeda had no clear membership standards. In the United States, scores of people have come to the attention of law enforcement officials who suspect them of terrorist connections, to Al Qaeda and other groups, officials said.
Some of the half-dozen or so recently arrested in the United States were said to have been studying possible locations for attacks on gasoline tanker trucks or suspension bridges. Others were in the United States awaiting future orders as "possible sleepers" or had transferred funds to other suspects. Officials said some of the men had been operating under the direction of Mr. Mohammed — who, after his arrest in Pakistan, is said to have confirmed their presence in the United States inspecting possible sites for terrorist attacks.
In the past, Mr. Mohammed was known to have sent other Qaeda operatives to the United States to undertake terrorist operations. Officials suspect that one of them was José Padilla, who in May 2002 was arrested in Chicago as he arrived from Zurich. He was accused of involvement in a plot to build a "dirty" bomb using conventional explosives and radiological materials.
By DAVID JOHNSTON with DON VAN NATTA Jr.
WASHINGTON, May 16 — Leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda have reorganized bases of operations in at least a half-dozen locations, including Kenya, Sudan, Pakistan and Chechnya, senior counterterrorism officials said this week.
The leaders have begun to recruit new members, train the new followers and plan new attacks on Western targets in earnest, according to senior counterterrorism officials in Washington, Europe and the Middle East.
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As evidence of this, senior government officials pointed to the secret arrests in the United States in the last two months of two Arab men suspected of having been sent by senior leaders of Al Qaeda to scout targets for new terror attacks.
The two recently apprehended men, whom the officials would not identify, were said to be conducting "presurveillance" activities. They were part of a larger group of about six Qaeda followers arrested in recent months whose presence in the United States has led the authorities to conclude that the terrorist group remains determined to carry out attacks on American soil, officials said.
The previously undisclosed arrests, along with the deadly bombings in Morocco today and Saudi Arabia this week that bear the earmarks of Al Qaeda, provided what officials in the United States and overseas said were strong indications that Osama bin Laden's network remained a potent threat, despite setbacks like the capture in March of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the network's senior operational commander. "Definitely, their capability has been eroded," said one senior government official, discussing Al Qaeda's ability to carry out attacks. "But they are still a threat, they are still sophisticated, they are still fighting and they are still trying to strike in the United States."
Although Al Qaeda's role in the Riyadh bombings on Monday night has not yet been confirmed, senior counterterrorism officials interviewed this week in the United States and Europe said they suspected the Saudi attacks marked a resurgence from a period of dormancy that began with the American-led invasion of Iraq two months ago.
The officials cited troubling signs that Al Qaeda had opened new training outposts in East Africa and had energized its recruitment efforts.
They also said there was new intelligence indicating that Al Qaeda was in the final planning stages of new attacks, possibly involving aircraft. Britain and the United States issued stark warnings this week about possible terrorist strikes in Saudi Arabia and East Africa.
One government official said such evidence of renewed activity indicated a furious attempt to "re-establish themselves and send loud messages" to the West. The official said he believed that the bombings in Riyadh were an important first step toward accomplishing that goal.
A senior counterterrorism official estimated that Al Qaeda had 3,000 members, far fewer than in the late 1990's, when as many as 20,000 people trained at Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Other officials said numbers were necessarily imprecise because Al Qaeda had no clear membership standards. In the United States, scores of people have come to the attention of law enforcement officials who suspect them of terrorist connections, to Al Qaeda and other groups, officials said.
Some of the half-dozen or so recently arrested in the United States were said to have been studying possible locations for attacks on gasoline tanker trucks or suspension bridges. Others were in the United States awaiting future orders as "possible sleepers" or had transferred funds to other suspects. Officials said some of the men had been operating under the direction of Mr. Mohammed — who, after his arrest in Pakistan, is said to have confirmed their presence in the United States inspecting possible sites for terrorist attacks.
In the past, Mr. Mohammed was known to have sent other Qaeda operatives to the United States to undertake terrorist operations. Officials suspect that one of them was José Padilla, who in May 2002 was arrested in Chicago as he arrived from Zurich. He was accused of involvement in a plot to build a "dirty" bomb using conventional explosives and radiological materials.
MOROCCAN MAYHEM
RABAT (Reuters) - Bombers killed more than 20 people in Morocco in the second major terror attack in a week, hours after President Bush warned of "killers on the loose."
The overnight blasts in Casablanca followed Monday's Saudi suicide bombings that killed 34 people in expatriate compounds and warnings that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda may strike again.
Britain, which earlier banned airliner flights to and from Kenya, warned its citizens of a "clear terrorist threat" in six other East African countries.
Friday night's blasts in Morocco's commercial capital, some of them car bombs, hit Jewish and Spanish targets and damaged the Belgian consulate, Morocco's official MAP news agency said.
"There are body parts all over the place," a Moroccan journalist told the BBC of the Spanish cultural center scene.
Moroccan Interior Minister Al Mustapha Sahel said 24 people -- mostly Moroccans -- were killed and 60 wounded in five blasts.
Earlier, Bush said the attacks in Saudi Arabia, which killed eight Americans, should make the world sit up and take notice.
"There are killers on the loose," he told reporters as terror alerts spread across the world.
"It is certainly a wake-up call to many that the war on terror continues, that we've still got a big task to protect the American people and others who love freedom from the designs and the will of these purveyors of hate," he said.
"CHATTER" AMONG SUSPECTS
A U.S. intelligence official said "chatter" among terror suspects picked up by U.S. eavesdropping appeared to be "more consistent, more repetitive" about another attack than it was before the Saudi bombings, which hit three housing compounds.
The Bush administration, which rejects suggestions that its invasion of Iraq was a distraction from the war on terror, says it has inflicted serious setbacks on al Qaeda, the group blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"No one has pretended that al Qaeda is dead, but I think there's no question that over the last several months it has suffered some very serious blows and we have arrested some very important, key al Qaeda figures," U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in Bosnia:
The latest terror alerts included warnings about dangers in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Kenya and other countries fearing for their tourist revenue accused Britain of over-reacting. Malaysia's outspoken prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, accused the United States of being "afraid of its own shadow."
But Britain extended its alert on Friday, warning of a "clear terrorist threat" in six of Kenya's neighbors -- Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
The United States also warned its citizens of a "credible threat" in the region. Kenya has been the target of two major terror attacks -- a 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing that killed 214 people and an attack last November on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa.
AL QAEDA SUSPECT
This week, Kenya reported sightings in the region of al Qaeda suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, accused of masterminding the embassy and hotel bombings and a related attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner with a surface-to-air missile.
Security at Nairobi airport was increased on Friday. British Airways stopped its flights but other airlines still operated.
The bombings in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and a strategic U.S. ally, were perhaps the most clearly targeted at U.S. interests since September 11.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of bin Laden and most of the September 11 attackers. Bin Laden is hostile to the Saudi royal family's close ties to the United States.
Washington said on Thursday it had intelligence of a possible attack on foreign residential compounds in Jeddah, close to the U.S. consulate and King Fahd's summer palace.
In other developments, Pakistan was hit by multiple but minor bombings at Western-branded petrol stations on Thursday.
"We suspect there could be a connection between the Karachi attacks and the terrorist strikes in Saudi Arabia," said Aftab Sheikh, head of Karachi's provincial interior ministry.
Lebanon said on Thursday it had smashed a plot to attack the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
The head of Sierra Leone's U.N.-backed war crimes court said there was evidence al Qaeda was operating in West Africa.
Australia and New Zealand warned nationals to be on guard in Southeast Asia, a region haunted by last year's Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people.
Australia urged extreme caution in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor and Brunei.
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
LARGEST MASS GRAVE UNEARTHED
Woman touches the remains of her son found in Basra mass grave
Few of the bodies found in Iraq have been identified
Iraqis have uncovered what is thought to be one of the largest mass graves found since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.
BBC correspondent Barbara Plett says the remains of up to 3,000 people had been found so far, and the total uncovered could be as many as 15,000.
The grave was found in the small village of al-Mahawil, located near the city of Hilla, about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad.
Among the remains are thought to be the bodies of political prisoners killed after a Shia Muslim uprising against Saddam in 1991 but also entire families.
Relatives are identifying them with their eyeglasses or other personal effects found among the bodies
Rafid al-Husseini
local doctor in al-Mahawil
BBC correspondents say the stench at the site is unbearable and a group of US marines who visited said it was like looking into hell.
Human rights groups believe that up to 200,000 people may be buried in sites across the country.
Search for loved ones
Iraqis dug using a mechanical digger and even their hands to find the bodies at al-Mahawil, which they painstakingly attempted to identify from clothing and identity cards on the bodies.
One young man told Reuters news agency he was sure he had found the remains of his brother because he recognised the shirt he always used to wear.
One woman clutched a plastic bag of bones she said had belonged to her husband's best friend, weeping as she waited for her husband's remains to be found.
"We expect many more here," said local doctor Rafid al-Husseini.
"We are trying to match the remains with the names... provided by families in the area.
"We found bodies on top of each other. Relatives are identifying them from their glasses or other personal effects found among the bodies."
Evidence
Rights groups have urged the international community to protect such sites, saying they are crime scenes containing evidence which may prove crucial to the prosecution of the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime.
However US Marine Major Al Schmidt told the BBC that they had to be respectful of the Iraqis who had suffered.
"This man [Saddam Hussein] committed a lot of atrocities [but] we are not going to stand here and disrupt them from their mourning," he said.
"We're going to come in as best we can and do what's best for these people."
Graves across Iraq
Families desperate to find loved ones have also been searching plots at the graveyard in Khan Banisaad, a village 30 km (19 miles) north-east of the Iraqi capital.
BBC correspondent Anu Anand says that squeezed between the graves of local villagers are hundreds of plots believed to contain bodies.
In their desperation to give their loved ones a proper burial, the families are disrupting the remains, destroying evidence that would be needed for any war crimes trials, our correspondent adds.
Iraqi officials in the southern city of Basra have reported finding 1,000 bodies in a mass grave.
Woman touches the remains of her son found in Basra mass grave
Few of the bodies found in Iraq have been identified
Iraqis have uncovered what is thought to be one of the largest mass graves found since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.
BBC correspondent Barbara Plett says the remains of up to 3,000 people had been found so far, and the total uncovered could be as many as 15,000.
The grave was found in the small village of al-Mahawil, located near the city of Hilla, about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad.
Among the remains are thought to be the bodies of political prisoners killed after a Shia Muslim uprising against Saddam in 1991 but also entire families.
Relatives are identifying them with their eyeglasses or other personal effects found among the bodies
Rafid al-Husseini
local doctor in al-Mahawil
BBC correspondents say the stench at the site is unbearable and a group of US marines who visited said it was like looking into hell.
Human rights groups believe that up to 200,000 people may be buried in sites across the country.
Search for loved ones
Iraqis dug using a mechanical digger and even their hands to find the bodies at al-Mahawil, which they painstakingly attempted to identify from clothing and identity cards on the bodies.
One young man told Reuters news agency he was sure he had found the remains of his brother because he recognised the shirt he always used to wear.
One woman clutched a plastic bag of bones she said had belonged to her husband's best friend, weeping as she waited for her husband's remains to be found.
"We expect many more here," said local doctor Rafid al-Husseini.
"We are trying to match the remains with the names... provided by families in the area.
"We found bodies on top of each other. Relatives are identifying them from their glasses or other personal effects found among the bodies."
Evidence
Rights groups have urged the international community to protect such sites, saying they are crime scenes containing evidence which may prove crucial to the prosecution of the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime.
However US Marine Major Al Schmidt told the BBC that they had to be respectful of the Iraqis who had suffered.
"This man [Saddam Hussein] committed a lot of atrocities [but] we are not going to stand here and disrupt them from their mourning," he said.
"We're going to come in as best we can and do what's best for these people."
Graves across Iraq
Families desperate to find loved ones have also been searching plots at the graveyard in Khan Banisaad, a village 30 km (19 miles) north-east of the Iraqi capital.
BBC correspondent Anu Anand says that squeezed between the graves of local villagers are hundreds of plots believed to contain bodies.
In their desperation to give their loved ones a proper burial, the families are disrupting the remains, destroying evidence that would be needed for any war crimes trials, our correspondent adds.
Iraqi officials in the southern city of Basra have reported finding 1,000 bodies in a mass grave.
FURIOUS BADGER INJURES FIVE
An angry badger injured five people and chased away pursuing police officers during a 48-hour "rampage" in the Worcestershire town of Evesham.
The one-year old Badger, named Boris, launched what experts described as unprecedented attacks after finding himself hungry, alone and frightened after being stolen or released from a wildlife visitor centre where he had been hand-reared and hand-fed.
The wife of a man who was savaged by Boris outside their home said he would be permanently scarred by the ordeal.
Pam Fitzgerald said the attack on her husband Michael, 67, at the front door of their house in Evesham, Worcestershire, was "like something out of a horror movie".
It left Mr Fitzgerald with severe wounds to his forearm and legs.
The retired BBC producer and director has undergone skins grafts at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. He is expected to return home later today.
Mrs Fitzgerald, 60, said she and her husband had gone to bed at around 11pm last Friday when they heard a loud bang in their garage. Her husband went to investigate and opened the garage to let the badger out before retiring to the front door to watch it go.
Instead of scuttling away, the animal headed straight for him and attacked.
Mrs Fitzgerald, who had come downstairs and was standing behind her husband at the time, said: "It was like something out of a horror movie, he was bleeding so badly.
"To hear your husband screaming and shouting in such pain, it was horrifying."
She called an ambulance which took Mr Fitzgerald to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester, but doctors decided he needed plastic surgery in Birmingham.
Worcestershire Badger Society put down Boris after catching him in a trap laid on the Fitzgeralds' front lawn, but not before he had chased pursuing police officer onto the bonnet of their car.
Badger society chairman Mike Weaver said the mammal had attacked four other people, including a young man in the Greenhill area of Evesham.
Mr Weaver said: "I have been involved with badgers for 24 years and I have never heard of anything like this."
He acknowledged that injured badgers or those which were being handled had been known to bite humans, but attributed its "uncharacteristic" behaviour to the fact it had been kept in captivity prior to its period of freedom.
"For them to attack people is unheard of," Mr Weaver added. Badgers have been known to attack badgers from other setts.
Weaver said badgers were notoriously powerful animals and the incident showed the folly of trying to turn wild animals into pets.
An angry badger injured five people and chased away pursuing police officers during a 48-hour "rampage" in the Worcestershire town of Evesham.
The one-year old Badger, named Boris, launched what experts described as unprecedented attacks after finding himself hungry, alone and frightened after being stolen or released from a wildlife visitor centre where he had been hand-reared and hand-fed.
The wife of a man who was savaged by Boris outside their home said he would be permanently scarred by the ordeal.
Pam Fitzgerald said the attack on her husband Michael, 67, at the front door of their house in Evesham, Worcestershire, was "like something out of a horror movie".
It left Mr Fitzgerald with severe wounds to his forearm and legs.
The retired BBC producer and director has undergone skins grafts at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. He is expected to return home later today.
Mrs Fitzgerald, 60, said she and her husband had gone to bed at around 11pm last Friday when they heard a loud bang in their garage. Her husband went to investigate and opened the garage to let the badger out before retiring to the front door to watch it go.
Instead of scuttling away, the animal headed straight for him and attacked.
Mrs Fitzgerald, who had come downstairs and was standing behind her husband at the time, said: "It was like something out of a horror movie, he was bleeding so badly.
"To hear your husband screaming and shouting in such pain, it was horrifying."
She called an ambulance which took Mr Fitzgerald to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester, but doctors decided he needed plastic surgery in Birmingham.
Worcestershire Badger Society put down Boris after catching him in a trap laid on the Fitzgeralds' front lawn, but not before he had chased pursuing police officer onto the bonnet of their car.
Badger society chairman Mike Weaver said the mammal had attacked four other people, including a young man in the Greenhill area of Evesham.
Mr Weaver said: "I have been involved with badgers for 24 years and I have never heard of anything like this."
He acknowledged that injured badgers or those which were being handled had been known to bite humans, but attributed its "uncharacteristic" behaviour to the fact it had been kept in captivity prior to its period of freedom.
"For them to attack people is unheard of," Mr Weaver added. Badgers have been known to attack badgers from other setts.
Weaver said badgers were notoriously powerful animals and the incident showed the folly of trying to turn wild animals into pets.
ANARCHY DESCENDS ON BAGHDAD
BAGHDAD, May 12 -- Baghdad residents and U.S. officials said today that U.S. occupation forces are insufficient to maintain order in the Iraqi capital and called for reinforcements to calm a wave of violence that has unfurled over the city, undermining relief and reconstruction efforts and inspiring anxiety about the future.
Reports of carjackings, assaults and forced evictions grew today, adding to an impression that recent improvements in security were evaporating. Fires burned anew in several Iraqi government buildings and looting resumed at one of former president Saddam Hussein's palaces. The sound of gunfire rattled during the night; many residents said they were keeping their children home from school during the day. Even traffic was affected, as drivers ignored rules in the absence of Iraqi police, only to crash and cause tie-ups.
The calls for more U.S. troops to police the city coincided with the arrival of L. Paul Bremer III, the Bush administration's new civilian administrator assigned to run the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. The U.S. occupation authority, which had previously been headed by retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, has struggled to restore Iraqi institutions since Hussein's government collapsed April 9 in the face of a U.S. military invasion.
Bremer, who met with senior staff members tonight inside the 258-room Republican Palace, pledged that he and Garner would work together for an "efficient and well-organized" transfer of power, with Garner assisting him for an undetermined period. He described his own work as a "wonderful challenge" and said the U.S. task is to "help the Iraqi people regain control of their own destiny."
But the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, expressed disappointment with efforts so far to bring democracy to Iraq. He told the British Parliament that "results in the early weeks have not been as good as we would have hoped." Straw also said the lack of security in Baghdad has been disappointing.
An office and warehouse belonging to the aid group CARE were attacked Sunday night. In two other weekend incidents, two CARE vehicles were seized by armed men, the organization reported today, asking the U.S. occupation forces to "take immediate steps to restore law and order to Baghdad."
"The violence is escalating," said Anne Morris, a senior CARE staff member. "We have restricted staff movement for their own safety. What does it say about the situation when criminals can move freely about the city and humanitarian aid workers cannot?"
Baghdad residents have been increasingly preoccupied by violence and the uncertainty it has produced, slowing relief and rebuilding efforts. One U.S. reconstruction official said tonight, for example, that as the Americans seek to distribute salaries and pensions, 20 bank branches have been unable to open without U.S. protection in the absence of a credible Iraqi police force.
"Security is the biggest problem we have," the official said. "The banks don't feel comfortable opening, and I agree with that."
BAGHDAD, May 12 -- Baghdad residents and U.S. officials said today that U.S. occupation forces are insufficient to maintain order in the Iraqi capital and called for reinforcements to calm a wave of violence that has unfurled over the city, undermining relief and reconstruction efforts and inspiring anxiety about the future.
Reports of carjackings, assaults and forced evictions grew today, adding to an impression that recent improvements in security were evaporating. Fires burned anew in several Iraqi government buildings and looting resumed at one of former president Saddam Hussein's palaces. The sound of gunfire rattled during the night; many residents said they were keeping their children home from school during the day. Even traffic was affected, as drivers ignored rules in the absence of Iraqi police, only to crash and cause tie-ups.
The calls for more U.S. troops to police the city coincided with the arrival of L. Paul Bremer III, the Bush administration's new civilian administrator assigned to run the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. The U.S. occupation authority, which had previously been headed by retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, has struggled to restore Iraqi institutions since Hussein's government collapsed April 9 in the face of a U.S. military invasion.
Bremer, who met with senior staff members tonight inside the 258-room Republican Palace, pledged that he and Garner would work together for an "efficient and well-organized" transfer of power, with Garner assisting him for an undetermined period. He described his own work as a "wonderful challenge" and said the U.S. task is to "help the Iraqi people regain control of their own destiny."
But the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, expressed disappointment with efforts so far to bring democracy to Iraq. He told the British Parliament that "results in the early weeks have not been as good as we would have hoped." Straw also said the lack of security in Baghdad has been disappointing.
An office and warehouse belonging to the aid group CARE were attacked Sunday night. In two other weekend incidents, two CARE vehicles were seized by armed men, the organization reported today, asking the U.S. occupation forces to "take immediate steps to restore law and order to Baghdad."
"The violence is escalating," said Anne Morris, a senior CARE staff member. "We have restricted staff movement for their own safety. What does it say about the situation when criminals can move freely about the city and humanitarian aid workers cannot?"
Baghdad residents have been increasingly preoccupied by violence and the uncertainty it has produced, slowing relief and rebuilding efforts. One U.S. reconstruction official said tonight, for example, that as the Americans seek to distribute salaries and pensions, 20 bank branches have been unable to open without U.S. protection in the absence of a credible Iraqi police force.
"Security is the biggest problem we have," the official said. "The banks don't feel comfortable opening, and I agree with that."
TAIWAN GRAPLES WITH FRESH OUTBREAK
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 13 ? Taiwan may have suffered another hospital outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the disappointed leader of its fight against the epidemic said today.
The country now has 220 probable cases of SARS and 25 deaths, which means it has surpassed Canada and is rivaling Singapore for the third-worst outbreak outside of mainland China and Hong Kong.
Dr. Lee Ming-liang, the former health minister in charge of fighting the epidemic, said the first reports of the possible new outbreak did not reach him until Sunday, which he was "not happy" about.
The newest outbreak is at Kaohsiung Chang Gang Hospital, a modern 2,000-bed center in southern Taiwan's largest city. The World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control sent down a team to look into it.
At least two female patients sharing a room and 10 nurses now have fevers or other symptoms, and about 100 of their contacts have been quarantined. Only one nurse has tested positive for coronavirus, but current tests are not accurate until a patient has been sick for days.
The outbreak seems to have begun with one of the roommates, a transfer from Taipei's Jen Chi Hospital. Jen Chi is near Hoping Hospital, where Taiwan's biggest outbreak occurred in mid-April, when a laundryman with SARS was misdiagnosed as a cardiac patient and spent four days in a ward with 40 other men.
Before that mistake was caught, several patients had transferred to Jen Chi. Both hospitals were closed in April, so any former Jen Chi patient should have been watched carefully, which is why Dr. Lee was irritated.
The director of Hoping was dismissed on Monday. A city official said it was "to give Hoping a fresh start," but the director has been accused of trying to cover up its outbreak. The hospital, disinfected and partly rebuilt, is to reopen soon for SARS cases.
Early Monday, Dr. Lee said that by counting all new cases by the dates that their symptoms began, Taiwan's epidemic appeared to be tailing off.
The Kaohsiung outbreak may create a new spike, but the head of the W.H.O. team, Dr. Cathy Roth, said it was still too early to tell.
Here in Taipei, there were some encouraging signs. The Hua Tsang housing project sealed off by police on Friday was reopened as it became clear that the building was not contaminated. All its SARS victims, it turned out, had visited Jen Chi Hospital.
Also, hospital efforts to start "fever clinics" in parking lot tents to keep infectious patients out of emergency rooms are "moving along impressively," Dr. Roth said.
The most crucial task now, she said, is to start a Web site on which doctors can enter details of every SARS case. It was supposed to be up already.
And the Sogo department store, Taiwan's equivalent of Bloomingdale's and Saks rolled into one, reopened after three days of sterilization in what looked like a triumph of disinfection over disinformation ? though, of course, the one-day, 50 percent-off sale did not hurt.
At the 11 a.m. opening, crowds poured in past the new thermal-imaging camera and the young women spraying hand disinfectant and asking everyone without a mask to accept a free one.
On Friday, Sogo closed nearly empty after rumors that a cashier had spread SARS to two customers, perhaps via their credit cards.
One cashier is ill and two customers may be, but there is no apparent connection between them, the chairwoman of the Pacific Sogo department store chain, Chin Chung, said. The cashier probably got sick on a bus trip to southern Taiwan, and the customers had no direct contact with her. Credit cards are carried to the cashiers by saleswomen, all of whom are healthy, she said.
Asked about that later, Dr. Lee agreed that "it's fair to say that there has been no transmission inside the store."
In the crowded food court today, Susan Hsieh and Carol Tang, 36-year-old shopping buddies, were downing the half-price lunches. Ms. Tang had a back massager, which was 40 percent off, and a silvery necklace, marked down to $14 from $56, with a portion donated to the SARS Prevention Fund.
"They cleaned it for three days," Mrs. Hsieh said. "I wasn't worried. I brought my mask. And we haven't seen each other in a long time."
Workers spent all Saturday, Sunday and Monday disinfecting the store, Mrs. Chung said, using "the same methods as in the Presidency Building."
All the goods were removed, the shelves and floors were washed with bleach solution, then a steam vaporizer with a germ-killing spray made two passes. Rat and cockroach poison was laid down, and every surface a customer might touch, from escalator rails to bathroom taps, was wiped.
Dr. Roth called that "more than was needed ? they erred on the side of caution."
Most customers appeared unafraid, though the makeup saleswomen had to learn a new skill ? working blush around their clients' masks.
The chairwoman had a lipstick streak inside her own, which she took off for an interview in a busy store restaurant ? but mostly because she was dying for a cigarette, which two special assistants jumped up to find.
"This has been good training for me," said Mrs. Chung, a Cornell-trained economist and former presidential spokeswoman, who has been in her job one month. "To deal with something this big ? I'll be much more able to deal with small things in the future."
Throughout the store, each saleswoman wore a blue sticker saying "I'm Very OK!" and giving her morning's temperature reading.
"It's no big deal," said Kao Chen-yu, a cashier. "The whole thing was blown up by the media. We got a lecture on SARS, and if a credit card could spread it, it'd be the end of the world."
She had not been stigmatized as a cashier, she said. "Only a few paranoid customers say `Stay away from me.' "
At the Hello Kitty boutique, Diana Lin said all their pink Kitty-faced masks had been sold out at $4 each. And in the aromatherapy department, Huang Yu-ling said she had rapidly sold 10 perfume atomizers advertised as "anti-SARS."
"Any kind of condensed scent has the power to kill the virus," she swore, pulling down her mask to wrinkle her delicate nose in the plume of fruity mist. Asked for the secret ingredient, she produced a small vial. It read: "Grapefruit Peel. Made in California."
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 13 ? Taiwan may have suffered another hospital outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the disappointed leader of its fight against the epidemic said today.
The country now has 220 probable cases of SARS and 25 deaths, which means it has surpassed Canada and is rivaling Singapore for the third-worst outbreak outside of mainland China and Hong Kong.
Dr. Lee Ming-liang, the former health minister in charge of fighting the epidemic, said the first reports of the possible new outbreak did not reach him until Sunday, which he was "not happy" about.
The newest outbreak is at Kaohsiung Chang Gang Hospital, a modern 2,000-bed center in southern Taiwan's largest city. The World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control sent down a team to look into it.
At least two female patients sharing a room and 10 nurses now have fevers or other symptoms, and about 100 of their contacts have been quarantined. Only one nurse has tested positive for coronavirus, but current tests are not accurate until a patient has been sick for days.
The outbreak seems to have begun with one of the roommates, a transfer from Taipei's Jen Chi Hospital. Jen Chi is near Hoping Hospital, where Taiwan's biggest outbreak occurred in mid-April, when a laundryman with SARS was misdiagnosed as a cardiac patient and spent four days in a ward with 40 other men.
Before that mistake was caught, several patients had transferred to Jen Chi. Both hospitals were closed in April, so any former Jen Chi patient should have been watched carefully, which is why Dr. Lee was irritated.
The director of Hoping was dismissed on Monday. A city official said it was "to give Hoping a fresh start," but the director has been accused of trying to cover up its outbreak. The hospital, disinfected and partly rebuilt, is to reopen soon for SARS cases.
Early Monday, Dr. Lee said that by counting all new cases by the dates that their symptoms began, Taiwan's epidemic appeared to be tailing off.
The Kaohsiung outbreak may create a new spike, but the head of the W.H.O. team, Dr. Cathy Roth, said it was still too early to tell.
Here in Taipei, there were some encouraging signs. The Hua Tsang housing project sealed off by police on Friday was reopened as it became clear that the building was not contaminated. All its SARS victims, it turned out, had visited Jen Chi Hospital.
Also, hospital efforts to start "fever clinics" in parking lot tents to keep infectious patients out of emergency rooms are "moving along impressively," Dr. Roth said.
The most crucial task now, she said, is to start a Web site on which doctors can enter details of every SARS case. It was supposed to be up already.
And the Sogo department store, Taiwan's equivalent of Bloomingdale's and Saks rolled into one, reopened after three days of sterilization in what looked like a triumph of disinfection over disinformation ? though, of course, the one-day, 50 percent-off sale did not hurt.
At the 11 a.m. opening, crowds poured in past the new thermal-imaging camera and the young women spraying hand disinfectant and asking everyone without a mask to accept a free one.
On Friday, Sogo closed nearly empty after rumors that a cashier had spread SARS to two customers, perhaps via their credit cards.
One cashier is ill and two customers may be, but there is no apparent connection between them, the chairwoman of the Pacific Sogo department store chain, Chin Chung, said. The cashier probably got sick on a bus trip to southern Taiwan, and the customers had no direct contact with her. Credit cards are carried to the cashiers by saleswomen, all of whom are healthy, she said.
Asked about that later, Dr. Lee agreed that "it's fair to say that there has been no transmission inside the store."
In the crowded food court today, Susan Hsieh and Carol Tang, 36-year-old shopping buddies, were downing the half-price lunches. Ms. Tang had a back massager, which was 40 percent off, and a silvery necklace, marked down to $14 from $56, with a portion donated to the SARS Prevention Fund.
"They cleaned it for three days," Mrs. Hsieh said. "I wasn't worried. I brought my mask. And we haven't seen each other in a long time."
Workers spent all Saturday, Sunday and Monday disinfecting the store, Mrs. Chung said, using "the same methods as in the Presidency Building."
All the goods were removed, the shelves and floors were washed with bleach solution, then a steam vaporizer with a germ-killing spray made two passes. Rat and cockroach poison was laid down, and every surface a customer might touch, from escalator rails to bathroom taps, was wiped.
Dr. Roth called that "more than was needed ? they erred on the side of caution."
Most customers appeared unafraid, though the makeup saleswomen had to learn a new skill ? working blush around their clients' masks.
The chairwoman had a lipstick streak inside her own, which she took off for an interview in a busy store restaurant ? but mostly because she was dying for a cigarette, which two special assistants jumped up to find.
"This has been good training for me," said Mrs. Chung, a Cornell-trained economist and former presidential spokeswoman, who has been in her job one month. "To deal with something this big ? I'll be much more able to deal with small things in the future."
Throughout the store, each saleswoman wore a blue sticker saying "I'm Very OK!" and giving her morning's temperature reading.
"It's no big deal," said Kao Chen-yu, a cashier. "The whole thing was blown up by the media. We got a lecture on SARS, and if a credit card could spread it, it'd be the end of the world."
She had not been stigmatized as a cashier, she said. "Only a few paranoid customers say `Stay away from me.' "
At the Hello Kitty boutique, Diana Lin said all their pink Kitty-faced masks had been sold out at $4 each. And in the aromatherapy department, Huang Yu-ling said she had rapidly sold 10 perfume atomizers advertised as "anti-SARS."
"Any kind of condensed scent has the power to kill the virus," she swore, pulling down her mask to wrinkle her delicate nose in the plume of fruity mist. Asked for the secret ingredient, she produced a small vial. It read: "Grapefruit Peel. Made in California."
OSAMA STRIKES BACK
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 11.25pm: Two vehicles drive up to a compound for foreigners. Gunmen open fire, then ram the building, setting off 400lb of plastic explosives. Minutes later, synchronised attacks are staged on Western targets elsewhere in the city leaving at least 29 dead, 194 injured and sending shockwaves around the world
By Rupert Cornwell, Andrew Gumbel and Khaled Al Maeena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The Dodge Ram truck and a second vehicle raced up to the front gate of a heavily guarded compound shortly before midnight on Monday in Riyadh's north-eastern suburbs. This was the local headquarters of the Vinnell Corporation, a US defence company that specialises in training the Saudi National Guard. It is home to many of its employees.
Most people were either asleep or getting ready for bed. But the calm was abruptly shattered when gunmen inside the vehicles opened fire on the sentry post, killing the armed guards, and rammed their way into the compound and up to a four-storey building. The deadliest terror attacks against Americans since 11 September were about to be unleashed.
Minutes later came the explosion ? an estimated 400lb of plastic explosive. The entire front of the four-storey building was ripped apart, throwing concrete, twisted steel bars, furniture and human remains in all directions. Cars parked on the street immediately combusted. For hours, scraps of sheeting and half-burnt pieces of paper fluttered slowly towards the ground.
All that was left of the Dodge yesterday was a burnt shell sitting in a crater 10ft deep and 10ft across. But that was only the beginning of the damage. At almost exactly the same time, similar attacks were staged on two other residential compounds in the same part of the city.
President George Bush vowed to track down the "despicable killers" who launched the suicide bombings ? believed to be the work of al-Qa'ida. The attacks were clearly timed to co-incide with the arrival in Riyadh of Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State, in the region to push the "road-map" plan for the Middle East.
Amid some confusion, the death toll fluctuated wildly. US officials initially put it at 29. The bodies recovered included the charred remains of the nine suspected bombers. Seven Americans died, as well as seven Saudis, two Jordanian children, two Filipino workers, one Lebanese and one Swiss citizen.
Speaking at a lunch in Washington, Vice-President Dick Cheney put the dead at "some 91," apparently using a number provided by State Department officials that was subsequently retracted. Later, Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman, said it was impossible to provide a specific figure. Saudi sources said 194 people were injured, but warned that could rise as well.
Details were sketchy about the precise mechanics of the attacks. Early reports said vehicles crashed their way through the sentry post at one compound, while at another, according to the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, seven bombs were detonated simultaneously.
Then, a little later, there was a further explosion at the Saudi Maintenance Company, a joint venture between an American firm, Frank E Basil Inc, and Saudi partners.
Which compound or compounds the various reports referred to was not immediately clear. At the Alhamra compound, which suffered particularly extensive damage, a 24-year-old Jordanian engineer identifying himself only by his first name, Momen, said he believed at least one of the bomb squads had made their entry by hugging close to the tail of a vehicle belonging to some guests of his.
"We knew that a truck had got through the main gates and into the heart of the compound. We heard a burst of gunfire and I went out thinking I should see what was going on," he said. "I thought I heard a hand grenade, then there was an enormous explosion which shook the house. A 100-metre column of fire shot up into the sky, there was smoke, black smoke ... it was horrible." A British national identified only as Nick told the Arab News how his four daughters immediately dropped to the floor as soon as they heard the gunfire ? something they had been trained to do in anticipation of such an attack. He also rushed to retrieve his five-month-old, whose cot was next to the window, when the car bomb detonated.
Within minutes, Nick heard sirens of police cars and ambulances as well as helicopters whirring overhead. According to another resident, the ground was littered with debris and bodies. Another British expatriate, who lives less than a mile from the compound, said his neighbours had fished body parts out of their swimming pools yesterday morning.
Amid the panic and heightened security, gleaning a full assessment of the damage proved impossible. Foreign diplomats, concerned for their nationals, called them at their homes. By late afternoon, the casualty figures started to mount.
Speaking in Indianapolis, Mr Bush denounced those responsible for the three attacks, as "killers whose only faith is hate". They would, he promised, "learn the meaning of American justice". A dozen-strong FBI "assessment team" is being dispatched to investigate the attacks.
But Washington's focus last night was firmly back on the war against terrorism and the continuing hunt for Osama bin Laden. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings but the modus operandi ? multiple strikes at virtually the same moment, reminiscent of the 1998 bombings in east Africa and the quadruple hijacking of 11 September ? was that of al-Qa'ida.
The attacks, which took place in the space of 15 minutes between 11.20pm and 11.35pm local time, had "all the fingerprints" of Bin Laden's organisation, General Powell said.
The "ruthless murder of American citizens and other citizens reminds us that the war on terror continues", Mr Bush declared. Mr Cheney added that if anyone thought the struggle was over, "all we have to do is contemplate last night's tragic events in Riyadh".
The attacks seem bound to unleash American reprisals and growing efforts to track down leaders of al-Qa'ida, as it regroups after the recent captures of key personnel. Mr Bush stated bluntly that "anytime anybody attacks our homeland, or our fellow citizens, we will be on the hunt". He added pointedly: "Just ask the Taliban."
Similarly, the attacks will be an acid test of US confidence in Saudi Arabia, which has been widely criticised for failing to clamp down on terrorism, and accused of extending financial and moral support to their cause.
The Saudi Ministry of the Interior claimed it had foiled an al-Qa'ida plot on 6 May by raiding a hide-out in Riyadh, seizing a large cache of arms. For the past few weeks, the government in Riyadh had cracked down on Islamic fundamentalists, dismissing clerics whom it described as "unfit".
The FBI team being dispatched is led by John Pistole, a senior counter-terrorism specialist. The group will expect full co-operation ? and certainly more help than given to US task forces investigating past terrorist attacks on American targets in Saudi Arabia.
The dead and the injured encompassed a large number of nationalities, in keeping with the diverse make-up of the residential compounds. The US casualty toll might have been much higher if 50 of Vinnell's 70 local employees had not been away on a training exercise. Robert Jordan, the US ambassador, said at least seven of the dead and 40 of the injured were Americans.
Riyadh hospitals were overwhelmed with victims, which included the son of Riyadh's deputy governor, Abdullah al-Blaihed, who is also the owner of the Alhamra compound, and members of the Saudi National Guard. A preliminary breakdown suggested the dead and injured also included British, German, French, Swiss, Australian, Filipino, Lebanese and Jordanian citizens.
Al-Qaeda BACK IN BUSINESS
By Roland Watson, Michael Theodoulou, Daniel McGrory and Michael Evans
PRESIDENT BUSH vowed yesterday to bring ?American justice? to those behind the bombing of Westerners in what was seen as the start of a concerted al-Qaeda campaign to drive expatriates out of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials said that 29 had been killed in simultaneous suicide attacks on three residential compounds, but Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, put the toll at 91.
Intelligence officials gave warning of further terrrorist attacks against Westerners, who include 30,000 Britons, in the kingdom. The assessment was based on three months of accumulated intelligence pointing to a reformed organisation.
People of at least eight nationalities, including seven Americans, are known to have died in the worst attack in Saudia Arabia?s history. Six Britons were among the injured.
Yesterday Mr Bush diverted from his prepared theme of tax cuts in a speech in Indianapolis to underscore his determination to pursue those behind the bombings, and any group found helping them. ?Anytime anybody attacks our homeland, or our fellow citizens, we will be on the hunt. We will bring them to justice. Just ask the Taleban,? he said. The ?despicable acts? of ruthless murder were committed by ?killers whose only faith is hate?.
Riyadh?s failure to co-operate after the September 11 attacks and in the aftermath of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 American soldiers, has been a running sore in US-Saudi relations.
But Mr Bush made clear that the history of limited co-operation would not stand in America?s way. ?The United States will find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice,? he said. FBI investigators are already on their way to the kingdom.
Since the end of the Iraq war, Mr Bush has said that the US is a safer place for the toppling of Saddam Hussein and declared that half of the al-Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed. However, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State who arrived in Saudi Arabia hours after the bombings, said the co-ordinated assault ?certainly has all the fingerprints of an al-Qaeda operation?.
Democrats accused Mr Bush of taking his eye of the terrorist threat while he concentrated on Iraq. Senator Bob Graham, who is seeking his party?s presidential nomination, said: ?The war on Iraq was a distraction. It took us off the War on Terror, which we were on a path to win, but we?ve let it slip away from us.?
General Powell went ahead with his visit yesterday, but interrupted his talks with Saudi rulers to visit the compound where the seven Americans died. Gunmen had shot sentries and opened the iron security gates to allow through a lorry packed with explosives.
Minutes later, another lorry rammed its way through the back entrance of a second complex less than a mile away.
The worst damage was at the al-Hamra village near by, where suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside villas and apartments where families were sleeping. Half of those living at al-Hamra are Westerners and include about 130 Britons.
One of the compounds attacked was a quarter of mile from where an arms cache and 800lbs of explosives were found last week. Security at residential compounds was supposed to have been reinforced last week as a result. Saudi authorities had been hunting 19 men linked to al-Qaeda, but it was not known if any of them were among Monday?s suicide squads.
British and American diplomats had warned expatriates that Islamic militants were ?in the final phases of planning an attack?, but an American official in Riyadh denied having had specific details about the target. The Foreign Office has advised people against travelling to the country and companies based there have suggested that staff send their families home. America has ordered all non-essential diplomats and embassy staff to leave.
Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, who said he was the ?co-ordinator of a Mujahidin training centre? run by al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the bombings in a message to a London-based Saudi magazine.
He said that al-Qaeda had reorganised its leadership and had been plotting a series of bombings in Saudi Arabia ? Osama bin Laden?s birthplace, and home to 17 of the September 11 hijackers.
The Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said the bombings ?should make us not hesitate to take whatever measures that are needed to oppose these people who know only hate?.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said that besides the seven Americans, at least ten Saudis, two Filipinos, two Jordanian children, a Lebanese, a Swiss, a Sri Lankan and an Australian had been killed.
OIL HIGHER ON TERROR ALERT
Fear of terrorism returned to the oil market on Tuesday following the suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia, which pushed oil prices higher on concern that similar attacks could be made on western oil targets in the region.
Fear of terrorism returned to the oil market on Tuesday following the suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia, which pushed oil prices higher on concern that similar attacks could be made on western oil targets in the region.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
ROCKING RIYADH
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three compounds housing Westerners and Saudis and set off car bombs, officials said. At least 50 people were injured, a hospital official said.
The string of attacks occurred in quick succession, and a fourth explosion rocked Riyadh early Tuesday outside the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Saudi owned company.
U.S. and Saudi officials said they suspected the al-Qaida terror network was behind the bombings.
"We don't know how many are injured, but we received 50 and the number is growing," an official at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh told The Associated Press by telephone, without identifying himself. "We're very busy, we are receiving a lot of casualties."
Smoke rose into the night sky from one of the attacked compounds, located in the Garnata neigborhood in eastern Riyadh, and a helicopter circled overhead, scanning the ground with a searchlight. Hundreds of anti-riot police and members of the elite National Guard were evacuating the area and sealing it off as ambulances rushed in.
The compounds are upscale gated communities housing corporate executives and other professionals. About half of them are Westerners, mostly British, Italian and French but also some Americans, and the rest Saudis and other Arabs, a Saudi official said.
A U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Colin Powell said they had been told that there were no American casualties in the explosions.
Powell, who is currently in neighboring Jordan, will go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as scheduled, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is seeking the Saudis' help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform in the latest stop on a Mideast tour that has already taken him to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
A counterintelligence official in Washington said intelligence from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida was close to launching a strike in Saudi Arabia. The State Department advised Americans earlier his month against travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
Saudi officials, as well, have recently said al-Qaida was planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, which is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites.
In Monday night's attacks, gunmen in three cars shot their way into the three residential compounds before setting off explosives in the vehicles, a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said it was not known if the gunmen killed themselves in the blasts or fled.
An American who lives in one of the targeted areas told the AP in an e-mail exchange from Riyadh that there was extensive damage to property and that he believed there had been some deaths.
Witnesses at the Garnata compound said the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded. The compound is owned by Riyadh's deputy governor Abdullah al-Blaidh.
The names of the other two Western compounds attacked were not immediately known.
The fourth blast went off at the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Company, also known as Siyanco, early Tuesday morning. The company is a joint-owned venture between Frank E. Basil, Inc., of Washington, and local Saudi partners, the officials reported.
The blasts come as the United States moves to pull out most of the 5,000 troops based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence has fueled anti-American sentiment in the population. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most of the troops would leave by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden used the presence of U.S. soldiers in the kingdom -- the birthplace of Islam -- as a rallying call for attacks on U.S. interests worldwide. Saudi Arabia was home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 attack hijackers.
Last week, a senior Saudi security official said suspected terrorists were receiving orders directly from bin Laden and were planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting the royal family as well as American and British interests.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.
On Wednesday, authorities said they foiled plans by at least 19 suspected terrorists to carry out strikes and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in the capital.
All escaped after a gunfight with police.
In remarks published Thursday, Prince Nayef said the men could be linked to al-Qaida, which he said was now "weak and almost nonexistent."
Nayef said the men included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. "These men have only one goal in mind: Jihad (holy war) ... They have been brainwashed," he said.
Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television Wednesday, and a reward of more than $50,000 has been offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects.
The confiscated weapons included hand grenades, five suitcases of explosives, rifles and ammunition, as well as computers, communications equipment and cash, officials said.
A week earlier, an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
In 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S.-run military training facility in Riyadh. Seven people died, including five American advisers to the Saudi National Guard. The Islamic Movement for Change and two smaller groups in the region claimed responsibility.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Hours before a visit by the American secretary of state, attackers shot their way into three compounds housing Westerners and Saudis and set off car bombs, officials said. At least 50 people were injured, a hospital official said.
The string of attacks occurred in quick succession, and a fourth explosion rocked Riyadh early Tuesday outside the headquarters of a joint U.S.-Saudi owned company.
U.S. and Saudi officials said they suspected the al-Qaida terror network was behind the bombings.
"We don't know how many are injured, but we received 50 and the number is growing," an official at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh told The Associated Press by telephone, without identifying himself. "We're very busy, we are receiving a lot of casualties."
Smoke rose into the night sky from one of the attacked compounds, located in the Garnata neigborhood in eastern Riyadh, and a helicopter circled overhead, scanning the ground with a searchlight. Hundreds of anti-riot police and members of the elite National Guard were evacuating the area and sealing it off as ambulances rushed in.
The compounds are upscale gated communities housing corporate executives and other professionals. About half of them are Westerners, mostly British, Italian and French but also some Americans, and the rest Saudis and other Arabs, a Saudi official said.
A U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Colin Powell said they had been told that there were no American casualties in the explosions.
Powell, who is currently in neighboring Jordan, will go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as scheduled, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is seeking the Saudis' help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform in the latest stop on a Mideast tour that has already taken him to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
A counterintelligence official in Washington said intelligence from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida was close to launching a strike in Saudi Arabia. The State Department advised Americans earlier his month against travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns.
Saudi officials, as well, have recently said al-Qaida was planning attacks in the oil-rich kingdom, which is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites.
In Monday night's attacks, gunmen in three cars shot their way into the three residential compounds before setting off explosives in the vehicles, a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said it was not known if the gunmen killed themselves in the blasts or fled.
An American who lives in one of the targeted areas told the AP in an e-mail exchange from Riyadh that there was extensive damage to property and that he believed there had been some deaths.
Witnesses at the Garnata compound said the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded. The compound is owned by Riyadh's deputy governor Abdullah al-Blaidh.
The names of the other two Western compounds attacked were not immediately known.
The fourth blast went off at the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Company, also known as Siyanco, early Tuesday morning. The company is a joint-owned venture between Frank E. Basil, Inc., of Washington, and local Saudi partners, the officials reported.
The blasts come as the United States moves to pull out most of the 5,000 troops based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence has fueled anti-American sentiment in the population. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most of the troops would leave by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden used the presence of U.S. soldiers in the kingdom -- the birthplace of Islam -- as a rallying call for attacks on U.S. interests worldwide. Saudi Arabia was home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 attack hijackers.
Last week, a senior Saudi security official said suspected terrorists were receiving orders directly from bin Laden and were planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting the royal family as well as American and British interests.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.
On Wednesday, authorities said they foiled plans by at least 19 suspected terrorists to carry out strikes and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in the capital.
All escaped after a gunfight with police.
In remarks published Thursday, Prince Nayef said the men could be linked to al-Qaida, which he said was now "weak and almost nonexistent."
Nayef said the men included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. "These men have only one goal in mind: Jihad (holy war) ... They have been brainwashed," he said.
Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television Wednesday, and a reward of more than $50,000 has been offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects.
The confiscated weapons included hand grenades, five suitcases of explosives, rifles and ammunition, as well as computers, communications equipment and cash, officials said.
A week earlier, an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
In 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S.-run military training facility in Riyadh. Seven people died, including five American advisers to the Saudi National Guard. The Islamic Movement for Change and two smaller groups in the region claimed responsibility.
