RIYADH BOMBING: Saudi Arabia vowed yesterday to clamp down on terrorism after dozens died in triple suicide bombings Riyadh said were carried out by 15 Saudis.With Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement held responsible, Saudi newspapers urged the government to treat May 12th, the day of the attacks, as the US treated September 11th, 2001.
The similarity between the two outrages was highlighted by Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
He said that Monday night's bombings against three expatriate residential compounds was carried out by the same number of assailants as that which attacked Washington and New York.
"Fifteen Saudis did what they did in the attacks in the United States, and 15 Saudis did the attacks here," he told a press conference, referring to 15 out of 19 suicide hijackers who carried out the attacks against the US.
The Riyadh bombings killed at least 34 people, including eight Americans and nine bombers, and wounded 194 others, according to the latest toll from the Saudi interior ministry.
A dispatch by the official SPA news agency on the funerals for the victims yesterday named a member of the Saudi National Guard and another from the Saudi air force as among those killed.
Prince Saud declined to provide details about the fate of the attackers not mentioned in the interior ministry's breakdown of the fatalities.
Two senior US State Department officials said yesterday eight US citizens were killed in the blasts.
Prince Saud said he hoped "accusations in the United States about the responsibility of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 tragedy will cease", adding that "nobody can hold us responsible for attacking our country".
He reiterated the kingdom's resolve to fight terror.
"International terrorism is threatening the security of all of us. We must co-ordinate efforts... to fight against terrorism in all its shapes and forms.
"The kingdom is committed to playing its role in this connection, and to strike with an iron fist all those who may try to threaten the country's security," he said.
"The perpetrators will receive the punishment they deserve."
Saudi Arabia offered no explanation for conflicting death tolls after the interior ministry revised its figures upwards to 34 dead.
That added five more to a previous Saudi toll - one Briton, one Irish national, an Australian of Lebanese origin, a third Filipino and an unidentified corpse.
Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz warned late on Tuesday in a speech to the nation that anyone who tried to commit "terrorist acts" would be severely dealt with, adding that such "criminals" would never shake the unity of the kingdom.
Saudi newspapers took up the theme yesterday, and called for action to wipe out terrorism.
"September 11th was a turning point in the history of the United States that enabled Washington to prepare to challenge terrorism," Al-Madina said.
"May 12th should become a turning point in our life to discover the real causes of this terror, deal with it and uproot it."
The crown prince had said in a televised broadcast on Tuesday that "there is no place for terrorism and we are determined to firmly suppress it and do the same to those who support it ideologically or who sympathise with it". - (AFP)