Suicide bombers injured more than
40 Americans and other nationals and probably killed others in
devastating attacks on Westerners' compounds in Riyadh on Monday
night, a Saudi minister and the U.S. ambassador said.
The blasts came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell was due in the Saudi Arabian capital on Tuesday.
The bombs seemed to be the latest anti-Western attacks in
the kingdom that is the birthplace of Islam -- and also of Osama
bin Laden, head of the al Qaeda network blamed for the September
11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"The three explosions that occurred in eastern Riyadh were
suicide bombings," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef told Al
Riyadh daily, the newspaper's website reported.
"They were set off by cars stuffed with explosives that were
driven into the targeted compounds," he said.
U.S. ambassador Robert W. Jordan told CNN television from
Riyadh that more than 40 Americans had been wounded at the
heavily guarded compounds.
"We have somewhat over 40 Americans hospitalised at this
stage," he said. He thought it was likely there would be more
casualties and that there were a "fair number of other
nationals" injured and perhaps killed.
In Washington, the State Department said Powell would travel
to Riyadh as scheduled despite the bombings. He was due in
Riyadh at 11:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) to see Crown Prince Abdullah bin
Abdul-Aziz on the latest leg of a Middle East tour.
Powell spent the night in Jordan as part of a drive to
promote a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.
A Saudi hospital official earlier told Reuters the blasts
had killed an unspecified number of foreigners and Saudis. He
said none of the dead were at his hospital but that he had
received reliable information from colleagues elsewhere.

U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS FOUR BLASTS
A U.S. official who declined to be named said there had been
at least four bombs. Witnesses had earlier said they had heard
three blasts, which sent fire balls into the night sky.
above the Gharnata, Ishbiliya and Cordoba compounds.
The official also included a housing compound for a joint
Western-Saudi company in his count.
Ambulances rushed to and from the sites as hundreds of riot
police poured in to cordon the areas off. Helicopters scanned
the area with searchlights, weaving among plumes of smoke.
A European resident of one of the targeted compounds,
identified as Nick, said the explosion occurred shortly before
midnight and was so powerful it blasted windows and doors out of
houses.
"We were sleeping when we were woken up by the sound of
gunfire," he told the Arab News newspaper. "Moments later, a
loud explosion was heard followed by another bigger explosion. I
have a five-month-old baby. She was sleeping next to the window
when the blast took place."
One Australian woman, named as Helen, told CNN television
trucks had rammed into gates at her walled and heavily guarded
villa compound and exploded after an exchange of gunfire.
The U.S. official said there were suspicions the bombings
could be an al Qaeda operation, but it was "too early to tell".
On May 1, the United States renewed a warning for citizens
to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia. One official said intelligence
agencies had credible information about a possible al Qaeda plot
to strike American targets there. The same day, a gunman wounded
a U.S. civilian at a naval base in Saudi Arabia.

POLICE HUNT MILITANTS
On May 7 police said they were hunting 19 suspected
militants, mainly Saudis, believed to be hiding in Riyadh after
a shoot-out with security forces the previous day. The Interior
Ministry said police had also found a huge cache of explosives,
hand grenades, ammunition and machineguns.
Helen told CNN her sturdy villa had shaken like a cardboard
box. "What am I doing living in a country where we need this
kind of security? We're surrounded by people who obviously don't
want us here...it's the ugliest day in my life."
U.S.-Saudi ties came under strain after the September 11
attacks, apparently carried out mainly by Saudis loyal to bin
Laden's al Qaeda group, one of whose key demands is for U.S.
forces to leave the home of Islam's holiest sites.
Many ordinary Saudis, angry with perceived U.S. bias towards
Israel, are also irked by the presence of Western troops.
Suspected militant Islamists have twice launched major
attacks on U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia since the 1991 Gulf War to
eject Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait.
In 1995, five Americans and two Indians were killed and 60
people were injured in an explosion in a car park near a
U.S.-run military training centre in Riyadh.
In 1996, a bomb in a fuel truck killed 19 U.S. soldiers and
wounded nearly 400 people at a U.S. military housing complex in
the eastern city of Khobar.
Last February, a British defence contractor was killed by a
Saudi suspected of al Qaeda links.
Two weeks ago the United States said it was removing
virtually all forces from the kingdom as they were no longer
needed after the war in Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein.
Saudi Arabia has charged 90 Saudis with belonging to al
Qaeda and is interrogating another 250.