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Suspects Have Now Been Arrested in Latest Riyadh Bombing
Aired November 11, 2003 - 05:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been telling you this morning, suspects have now been arrested in the latest Riyadh bombing. But that doesn't relieve the fear the Saudis are living under right now.
CNN's Nic Robertson live from Riyadh by video phone with the latest -- good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, Saudi sources, Saudi government sources here are telling us that a number of people have been detained in connection with the bombing Saturday and they say these people, they believe, are members of al Qaeda. And while these people, and others, have been in detention, al Qaeda suspects have been telling their Saudi interrogators that they had believed this compound did not have Arabs in it, but, in fact, had Americans in it.
This is leading the Saudi government here to begin to reassess. Perhaps, they say, they now believe that al Qaeda made a mistake in targeting this compound. Really, they were after Americans. They had bad information because four years ago this compound had been operated by the Boeing Corporation and the Saudi government saying, or thinking, at least, that there's a possibility now perhaps al Qaeda got it wrong, perhaps they were actually after Americans, but they did, in fact, kill Arabs.
And that certainly did not sit well with the Saudi people. It did not sit well with the international Arab businessmen, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Lebanese, many of whom work in this city. It's created a great sense of insecurity and uncertainty about what could be the target next.
And we've also learned today that a Saudi political weekly magazine has now received a claim of responsibility from al Qaeda. This particular magazine is owned by a senior member of the Saudi royal family. It has, in the past, proven to be relatively reliable when it comes to claims of responsibility from al Qaeda inasmuch as that claims initially published, like this one, with this particular political magazine, claims published there have later been followed up on al Qaeda's -- on Web sites that al Qaeda has used and in other al Qaeda messages.
So perhaps at this time this does appear to be the first claim of responsibility from al Qaeda for this attack -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know how difficult it is to get information out of there, but do you know how many suspects are in custody and where they're from?
ROBERTSON: No, it's not clear at this stage, Carol. What we do know are some approximate figures. Since the attack in May 12, a few months ago, Saudi authorities are believed to have detained about 600 people that they believe are related with or involved with al Qaeda. They also, in the last few days, in the last week or so, have had a shootout, shootouts both in Riyadh and the holy city of Mecca that killed five suspected al Qaeda members.
We don't know exactly how many people have been detained. We know it's more than one, but we do not have better specifics than that at this time -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Are there many Americans still in Saudi Arabia, Nic?
ROBERTSON: There are. There are about 35,000 here, according to estimates by the U.S. Embassy here. Perhaps about 30,000 British nationals here, as well. So there is a very, very large expatriate community. Most live in relatively secure compounds and one of the reasons -- we talked to some of the survivors of the bombing yesterday -- one of the reasons they had felt relatively safe in their compound was because there were very, very few Westerners there, because it was identified as a compound of Arabs, they felt safe.
So it does -- there's certainly a sense here that it is still, even at this time, Western targets, Westerners that would be the target for more potential attacks. So the security around those compounds really is, in the last few days, become tighter here in Saudi Arabia, making getting in and out of some of these diplomatic quarters, for example, a very time consuming business -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic Robertson live from Riyadh this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 11, 2003 - 05:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been telling you this morning, suspects have now been arrested in the latest Riyadh bombing. But that doesn't relieve the fear the Saudis are living under right now.
CNN's Nic Robertson live from Riyadh by video phone with the latest -- good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, Saudi sources, Saudi government sources here are telling us that a number of people have been detained in connection with the bombing Saturday and they say these people, they believe, are members of al Qaeda. And while these people, and others, have been in detention, al Qaeda suspects have been telling their Saudi interrogators that they had believed this compound did not have Arabs in it, but, in fact, had Americans in it.
This is leading the Saudi government here to begin to reassess. Perhaps, they say, they now believe that al Qaeda made a mistake in targeting this compound. Really, they were after Americans. They had bad information because four years ago this compound had been operated by the Boeing Corporation and the Saudi government saying, or thinking, at least, that there's a possibility now perhaps al Qaeda got it wrong, perhaps they were actually after Americans, but they did, in fact, kill Arabs.
And that certainly did not sit well with the Saudi people. It did not sit well with the international Arab businessmen, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Lebanese, many of whom work in this city. It's created a great sense of insecurity and uncertainty about what could be the target next.
And we've also learned today that a Saudi political weekly magazine has now received a claim of responsibility from al Qaeda. This particular magazine is owned by a senior member of the Saudi royal family. It has, in the past, proven to be relatively reliable when it comes to claims of responsibility from al Qaeda inasmuch as that claims initially published, like this one, with this particular political magazine, claims published there have later been followed up on al Qaeda's -- on Web sites that al Qaeda has used and in other al Qaeda messages.
So perhaps at this time this does appear to be the first claim of responsibility from al Qaeda for this attack -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know how difficult it is to get information out of there, but do you know how many suspects are in custody and where they're from?
ROBERTSON: No, it's not clear at this stage, Carol. What we do know are some approximate figures. Since the attack in May 12, a few months ago, Saudi authorities are believed to have detained about 600 people that they believe are related with or involved with al Qaeda. They also, in the last few days, in the last week or so, have had a shootout, shootouts both in Riyadh and the holy city of Mecca that killed five suspected al Qaeda members.
We don't know exactly how many people have been detained. We know it's more than one, but we do not have better specifics than that at this time -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Are there many Americans still in Saudi Arabia, Nic?
ROBERTSON: There are. There are about 35,000 here, according to estimates by the U.S. Embassy here. Perhaps about 30,000 British nationals here, as well. So there is a very, very large expatriate community. Most live in relatively secure compounds and one of the reasons -- we talked to some of the survivors of the bombing yesterday -- one of the reasons they had felt relatively safe in their compound was because there were very, very few Westerners there, because it was identified as a compound of Arabs, they felt safe.
So it does -- there's certainly a sense here that it is still, even at this time, Western targets, Westerners that would be the target for more potential attacks. So the security around those compounds really is, in the last few days, become tighter here in Saudi Arabia, making getting in and out of some of these diplomatic quarters, for example, a very time consuming business -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic Robertson live from Riyadh this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
