Suicide bombs hit residences In deadliest attack on Americans since 9/11, 10 from U.S. lose lives

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronized strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off suicide car bombs, killing at least 20 people, including 10 Americans, officials reported today.
It was the deadliest terror attack on Americans since Sept. 11, 2001, and Secretary of State Colin Powell said the coordinated strike had "the earmarks of Al-Qaida."
At least 20 people were killed, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said today.
Victims' nationalities
The official Saudi Press Agency quoted the unidentified Interior Ministry official as saying attackers using cars packed with explosives in "suicide operations" killed seven Americans, seven Saudis, two Jordanians, two Filipinos, one Lebanese and one Swiss at the three compounds. In addition, nine charred bodies believed to be those of the suicide attackers were found, the official said.
Powell, who arrived today on a previously scheduled visit despite the attacks, had said earlier that at least 10 Americans were among the dead. The discrepancy with the Saudi Interior Ministry report of seven dead Americans could not immediately be explained.
Philippine authorities reported two deaths and Australian officials reported one.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. Brad Lowell said there were no reports of any casualties among American service members.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan said at least 40 of the injured were Americans.
Smaller bombing
The attacks late Monday were followed by a smaller bombing today near the headquarters of a Saudi-U.S. company. No casualties were reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. If the Al-Qaida connection is confirmed it would show that Osama bin Laden's network is still capable of mounting coordinated attacks, even in one of the world's most tightly policed countries.
Before being uprooted in the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the group carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the 1998 simultaneous car bombings outside American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 230 people.
Pulling out
The Riyadh attack came as the United States is pulling out most of the 5,000 troops it had based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence fueled anti-American sentiment. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that most would be gone by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden has repeatedly railed against the presence of what he calls "infidel" troops on Muslim holy land.
A guard at one of the housing compounds in the northeastern section of the city was quoted by the Saudi paper al-Watan as saying that seven cars exploded there, all apparently carrying suicide bombers. At least three bodies could be seen lying on the ground at the compound this morning.
Witnesses at the al-Blaidh compound said the force of the blast shook nearby buildings and rattled windows in the Granata neighborhood. Witnesses also reported hearing gunfire moments before the car exploded.
The force of the blast ripped through multistory apartment buildings and single-family houses. Facades of five- and four-story buildings were sheared off. Heaps of rubble and blocks of upended concrete surrounded twisted steel bars and downed palm trees. Burned-out hulks that had been cars were still in their parking spots; upended furniture and debris littered a pool deck.
Police vehicles, lights flashing, patrolled the walls of the compounds and kept reporters out. Al-Hamra compound, which suffered one of the worst attacks, was hidden behind 20-foot walls. Surveillance cameras were posted along the walls.
Most of the homes in such compounds are large, single-family villas that would not be out of place in an upper-middle class California. Behind high walls, Westerners can escape Saudi restrictions such as the requirement that women appear outside the home only in enveloping robes and enjoy well-tended parks, swimming pools and sports fields. Their inhabitants tend to be professionals in the oil industry, the financial sector or schools.
Saudi Arabia has a large population of expatriate workers, including about 35,000 Americans.
The wounded
Saudi officials told The Associated Press at least 50 wounded people were taken to the National Guard Hospital. Other hospitals reported at least 10 injured.
British officials said five of their citizens were wounded; the Dutch reported three.
A Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten quoted doctor Niels Joergen Secher as saying that up to 50 bodies were brought to Riyadh's King Faisal hospital, but Secher later denied the report to The Associated Press.
Powell was greeted on his arrival by Prince Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, who expressed his sorrow and vowed to cooperate with the United States in fighting terrorism.
"It is no consolation, but these things happen everywhere," Saud said. "It should increase our efforts and should make us not hesitate to take whatever measures that are needed to oppose these people, who know only hate, only killing."
Planning by Al-Qaida
An intelligence official in Washington said information from the past two weeks indicated Al-Qaida had been planning a strike in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites.
State Department officials said the American school in Riyadh would be closed today and advised Americans to remain at home until further notice.
Earlier this month, the State Department advised Americans to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns, and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said it had information that terrorist groups were completing plans to attack American interests in the country.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.