Sydney, May 16 (Bloomberg) -- The State Department warned U.S. citizens in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah of a possible terrorist attack after suicide bombers earlier this week killed 34 people in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Eight U.S. citizens were among the 34 people killed in attacks on three housing compounds in Riyadh where many westerners live. The attack came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the city.
Update:
"Saudi Arabia, a longtime American ally, saw its relationship with the U.S. shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, which were carried out by 15 Saudi hijackers and four accomplices, who were primarily funded by Saudi princes, who all practiced the totalitarian Wahhabism required by the Saudi regime, were lead by a Saudi, and who all received hate-filled training in Saudi funded Madrassahs."
Can't blame the poor misunderstood Saudis, now can we?
Here's some more on that:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-5-2003_pg7_43 WASHINGTON: The United States has received information about a terrorist threat against a specific neighbourhood in the Saudi city of Jeddah after this week’s suicide attacks in the capital Riyadh, the State Department said Thursday.
The department, through the US consulate in Jeddah, said it could not assess the credibility of the threat against compounds where expatriates live in the city’s al-Hamra district, but said some US officials had moved out of the area in response.
“The US consulate general in Jeddah has received an unconfirmed report that a possible terrorist attack in the al-Hamra district of Jeddah may occur in the near future,” the consulate said. “While we cannot certify the credibility of the threat, in light of recent events this information is being shared with the American community,” it said in a notice to Americans in the city.
“Some consulate families resident in the al-Hamra district have elected to move to different quarters,” it said.
A copy of the notice was provided to AFP in Washington by the State Department, which planned to release the information in it in a revised travel warning for Saudi Arabia later Thursday. That warning is to be released just three days after the Riyadh attacks that killed 34 people, including eight US citizens, which prompted the State Department on Tuesday to order the departure of its non-essential diplomats from Saudi Arabia.
Monday’s attacks have been blamed on the Al Qaeda network. The new warning does not identify the source of the threat.
The latest alert comes as US officials have expressed displeasure with Saudi Arabia’s response to increasingly dire warnings beginning at the end of last month that terrorists were “in the final phases” of plotting anti-American attacks in the country.
Washington has complained that the Riyadh did not do enough to tighten security at possible targets, including the housing compounds struck in Monday’s attacks.
At the same time, though, US officials have stressed that Saudi Arabia remains an ally in the war on terrorism and have sought to avoid harsh criticism of the kingdom’s apparent failure to take necessary precautions.
A 60-strong team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers has arrived here to help investigate the suicide attacks that left at least 34 dead, including eight Americans, the US embassy said Friday.
“They arrived late last night,” said John Burgess, counsellor for public affairs at the US embassy in the capital Riyadh.
“There are approximately 60 (in the team). They will be involved in the investigation into the bombings in coordination with the Saudi authorities,” Burgess told AFP, denying that the team included any CIA operatives. The team’s stay in the kingdom “is open ended”, he added.
A British police team also arrived in Saudi Arabia Thursday, while Australia announced it too was sending police officers to help with the investigation into the attacks. —AFP