Al-Qaida claims responsibility for Saudi bombings

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi police detained suspects in this week's car bombing in Riyadh, security officials said Tuesday, and a purported al-Qaida claim of responsibility for the attack blamed its Arab victims for working with Americans.

Those detained included possible suspects in Saturday's attack on the Muhaya housing complex, which killed 17 people, the Saudi security officials said. Also taken into custody were others who might have information about militant activities in the kingdom, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The officials did not say how many people were taken into custody.

The claim of responsibility -- the first for Saturday's blast -- came in an e-mail from a purported al-Qaida operative, identified as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, to the London-based weekly Al-Majalla.

"We struck Muhaya compound," Al-Majalla quoted al-Ablaj as saying in the e-mail.

The Muhaya complex -- a collection of about 200 homes not far from the main palaces of the Saudi royal family -- houses mainly Arab foreigners working in the kingdom. At least 13 of those killed Saturday were Arabs, with four others still unidentified, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said, according to the state news agency. Five were children. In addition, 122 people were wounded, among them some Americans but most of them Arab.

That has angered Saudis, who have portrayed the attack as proof of al-Qaida's willingness to shed Arab and Muslim blood as well in its zeal to bring down the Saudi monarchy.

The al-Ablaj e-mail addressed that, saying al-Qaida believed that "working with Americans and mixing with them" was forbidden.

Al-Majalla said the e-mail was first seen late Monday and released a statement about it to the AP on Tuesday. The magazine began receiving e-mails from al-Ablaj earlier this year. A U.S. counterterrorism official has said al-Ablaj was believed to be a leading al-Qaida figure also known as Abu Bakr.

Saudi and U.S. officials already blamed Saturday's attack on al- Qaida, which opposes the United States and the Saudi ruling family, but no group had claimed responsibility.

Al-Qaida, led by Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, has long opposed the Saudi royal family, accusing it of being insufficiently Islamic and too close to the West, particularly the United States.

An al-Qaida member was killed in a "battle in Riyadh," the al- Ablaj e-mail added, but it was unclear if it was referring to Saturday's attack or other clashes between Saudi authorities and al- Qaida suspects in recent weeks.

Saudi authorities have not said how many attackers were killed Saturday. In the attack, gunmen opened fire on guards at the complex before the explosive-packed vehicle was detonated.

One of the four unidentified dead was believed to have been in the attack vehicle, a police investigator told reporters Tuesday at the scene of the attack, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The investigator confirmed earlier witness reports that the attack vehicle resembled a police vehicle. He said it was apparently a private sport utility vehicle painted with police insignia.

Forensic teams were still collecting and bagging debris that could be evidence Tuesday. The compound was evacuated, but a few families were allowed in Tuesday to retrieve personal items. Work crews were sweeping up shards of glass and other debris.

Following a Cabinet meeting Monday, King Fahd vowed to capture the "terrorists" behind the attack and their supporters. He said the kingdom "will strike with an iron fist all those who try to meddle with the security of the country and the stability and safety of its citizens and residents," the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The U.S. Embassy and two consulates in Saudi Arabia, which had closed Saturday before the bombing because of warnings of an imminent terror attack, were to remain closed at least through Friday, an embassy spokeswoman said.

But after a review of the threat level, U.S. Embassy staff and their families were told Monday that they could travel outside Riyadh's heavily guarded diplomatic quarter, to which they had been restricted since the attack.

In a past e-mail to Al-Majalla, al-Ablaj said al-Qaida was preparing attacks against Americans during the holy month of Ramadan. Around the start of Ramadan in late October, there were a string of bombings in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

In Iraq Tuesday, the commander of American forces said the U.S. military is holding 20 people suspected of links to al-Qaida but had not determined whether they were members of the network. U.S. officials have said they suspect foreign volunteers, including some from al-Qaida, have slipped into Iraq, though their numbers are uncertain.

Al-Majalla magazine also reported previously that it received an e- mail warning from al-Ablaj of attacks in Saudi Arabia a day before the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh. Those bombings, like Saturday's, hit a residential compound housing foreigners and killed and wounded Arabs as well as Westerners.

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