ALKHOBAR/RIYADH, 8 October — Saudi Arabia yesterday identified the victims of Saturday’s parcel bomb attack in Alkhobar and pledged to hunt down the perpetrators behind the “cowardly act” that killed two — including an American — and injured four.

“We have strong faith in God, our security officers and the Saudi people. The perpetrators of this cowardly criminal act will surely be brought to justice,” said Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.

Prince Abdullah made this assurance during telephone conversations with US President George W. Bush and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Bush condemned the bomb blast that targeted innocent people.

“The president expressed his sympathy to the innocent victims of the criminal attack,” the Saudi Press Agency said. “These criminal acts pose a clear threat to human decency,” the president added.

The chief of the Eastern Province police confirmed that US citizen Michael Gerald Martin died in the blast, but added that authorities were still probing the identity of the second fatality.

Al-Watan Arabic newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that the blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber, likely to be a Pakistani or Afghan. The daily said the perpetrator’s body was blown several meters away.

However, the report could not be confirmed and the authorities were still trying to identify the badly mutilated second corpse. “We have no information that a Pakistani had carried out the attack, and we have not been informed that there were Pakistani casualties in the explosion,” the deputy head of mission at Pakistan’s Embassy in Riyadh, Etizaz Ahmad said.

Okaz newspaper, also quoting unnamed witnesses, said the body of one of the dead men was sliced in two, which suggested he could have been carrying the bomb.

A second American, identified by the police chief as Juan Filin, was badly hurt and a Briton, identified as Iden Manco, slightly wounded in the blast, which a US official said was probably unrelated to the Sept. 11 suicide jetliner attacks in New York and Washington. The other two wounded in the blast are Filipinos: Richard de la Jose, 33, and Diosdado Baylomo, 37.

Saudi officials did not speculate on the reasons for the attack, which follows a series of bombings in the Kingdom linked to alcohol smuggling. A dozen Westerners are in jail awaiting trial as inquiries continue into bootlegging and the explosions.

Local press reports said the second casualty in Saturday’s attack was probably a Filipino. Philippines Embassy charge d’affaires Mariano Dhoomiya told Arab News that two Filipinos were confirmed wounded. Both were still at hospital but out of danger. “We are still trying to confirm if the second person killed was a Filipino,” he said.

Reports say there was a fifth person injured, Mustafa Akbar, 33, a Pakistani.