RIYADH, 23 April 2004 — Again Riyadh has become the victim of a terrorist attack and, like last November when the Al-Muhaya Compound was targeted, the scene of destruction is sobering.
As I walked through the rubble in the aftermath of Wednesday’s blast, my mind kept flashing to the victims laid up in hospital suffering from horrendous injuries — shrapnel wounds, internal injuries from the force of the blast, missing limbs, and eyes blinded forever by flying glass.
This morning, the smell of fire lingered in the air. Hundreds of military and police personnel were present, guarding the site and sifting through the ruins.
No building within a quarter of a kilometer was spared. Broken glass and debris litter the entire area. Local businesses adjacent to the blast site have been destroyed, some having their doors and windows blown in, and many requiring armed guards to be stationed outside to prevent looting. Dozens of cars lay haphazardly around the blast site, on their sides or upside down, many with large holes punched through them by flying debris. Not far away are two armored cars; their doors and steel reinforced panels pierced as if they were made of aluminum foil.
Across the street today, the mostly Syrian residents of a building returned to salvage what is left of their lives and belongings. In that building, an innocent 11-year-old girl was killed, one of the four dead.
The attack took place in the middle of the afternoon when people were on the streets and in the buildings. The timing was picked to inflict the maximum death and destruction. The attacks of May and November on residential compounds were carried out at night when people relaxed in their homes and slept in their beds, also to inflict the most casualties.
What do these men want to achieve? Do they want to destabilize the government? They have done the exact opposite. Everyone Arab News interviewed today stood united with the government against the cowards that perpetrated this attack, and called for their heads. Only when these people are caught, and tried, will many feel at ease again.
