DAMMAM, 15 November — Saudi Arabia has announced who was behind the bombing that rocked an Alkhobar shopping center last month that killed an American and injured four expatriate workers. An Interior Ministry official said that 30-year-old Ayman ibn Muhammad Ameen Saeed Abu Zanad, a Palestinian carrying an Egyptian travel document, killed himself when he set the bomb off.

The blast, which took place on Oct. 6, killed Michael Gerald Martin, the American, and injured Juan Filin, another American, Iden Manco, a Briton, and two Filipinos: Richard de la Jose and Diosdado Baylomo.

“The perpetrator was the second victim in the incident,” the ministry official said, adding that police later found bomb parts at his father’s house in Dammam. The official said the motive was not yet known and investigations were continuing.

Abu Zanad, the alleged bomber, was single and had received a bachelor’s degree from an Indian university. He worked as a dentist at a private clinic in Riyadh. Abu Zanad visited his family in Dammam on Oct. 3 as he usually did on weekends. “While searching his room in his father’s house, police also found two Indian passports containing his photograph and personal details,” the official said.

Speaking to Arab News, Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mustafa Hashim Deeb, strongly condemned the attack, and said it must have been masterminded by an enemy of both countries. “It may have been an individual act, or it may have been masterminded by sides seeking to undermine close Palestinian-Saudi ties. But it will neither affect those ties nor have an impact on Palestinians living in the Kingdom,” Deeb said.

He added that the Palestinian Authority was prepared to extend any assistance required to help determine the motives behind the attack. Deeb said he will meet with Saudi security authorities on Saturday to provide information about Abu Zanad.

Zanad’s father Muhammad has been living in the Kingdom for quite a long time. He was a teacher at the Muetasim Billah Intermediate School in Dammam before moving to a private company involved in marketing medicine and pharmaceuticals. Muhammad has another son, who is also a doctor.

Arab News learned that Muhammad’s flat in the Rabie district of Dammam has been vacant for the past month, according to other residents who described Muhammad as quiet and peaceful. It was not clear if the bomb attack was linked to the US military build-up in the region after the Sept. 11 attacks in US cities. Alkhobar was the site five years ago of a massive truck bomb that killed 19 US servicemen.

The United States sought to discount the idea that the explosion was linked to the suicide-hijack assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “Based on first reports, we believe this is an isolated incident, not related to Sept. 11. But we are continuing to collect facts,” a US administration official said.

The casualties would have been higher if the shops on the otherwise busy street had not been closed for Isha prayer. The blast occurred in front of a gift shop at the first crossing of the street. This was the fourth explosion to rock the city. The first was the truck bomb attack in 1996. In December last year, a British citizen was seriously hurt in another explosion. Last May, a blast left an American doctor injured.

Several bomb blasts thought to be related to gang warfare have also taken place in Riyadh and Alkhobar this year and last year. Three Britons recently confessed on Saudi television to their involvement in the bombings that occurred in Riyadh and Alkhobar between December 2000 and March 2001.

Their confessions were aired after Interior Minister Prince Naif announced that British nationals had been behind the bombings at the Euromarche department store and the Jarir Bookstore in Riyadh and another blast in Alkhobar.

The three men, identified as James Patrick Lee, 40, James Christopher Cottle, 51, and Les Walker, 55, gave detailed confessions with maps on which they pinpointed the three attacks that left two other Britons and an Egyptian injured.