RIYADH, 15 May 2003 — Interior Minister Prince Naif has warned that Saudi Arabia will take strong action against religious leaders who instigate violence and terrorism here in the Kingdom.
“We will not remain idle and watch certain religious figures who instigate violence by issuing edicts branding certain people as ‘infidels’,” the prince said.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, the minister added: “We will hold them responsible for their words and deeds.”
Prince Naif also warned people who try to justify the terrorist attacks in Riyadh that killed at least 34 innocent people, including seven Saudis.
“We will not just stand here and fold our arms. We will deal with them with an iron fist to establish truth and justice,” the prince said.
The interior minister said the Kingdom had stepped up security to foil future attempts to undermine the country.
“There will be inspections of any suspect cars at the entry and exit points of cities,” he said. Prince Naif confirmed that one of the 19 terrorist suspects, Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi, had surrendered to security authorities.
He emphasized the role of foreign hands in Monday’s attacks.
“Foreign hands supported the attacks. This is clear from the identity of the terrorists who have received training in Afghanistan from Al-Qaeda,” he said.
Prince Naif said he was not sure whether the perpetrators of the four bombings in Riyadh were the same 19 Al-Qaeda suspects discovered last week.
He said the attackers had used three or four vehicles to carry out the suicide bombings. “In one car, we saw three charred bodies,” he said.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday that the Kingdom would make Al-Qaeda pay for suicide bombings and would hunt down the masterminds.
Addressing a press conference in Riyadh, the Saudi chief diplomat reiterated the Kingdom’s determination to fight the terrorists and their supporters.
“Whoever did this will regret it because they have galvanized this country’s determination to extract this cancer (terrorism) and ensure that it doesn’t return,” the prince said.
However, Saud admitted there were security lapses, saying Saudis should “look within themselves and see whether we have done enough to preserve the security of our nation.”
“The fact that the terrorism happened is an indication of shortcomings, and we have to learn from our mistakes and seek to improve our performance in this respect,” he told reporters.
Prince Saud said 15 people had taken part in the terrorist attacks. “As in the Sept. 11 attacks in the US, the number of Saudis who took part in the Riyadh attacks was 15, and this fact should make Saudis and Americans sympathize with one another,” he said.
Saud said the perpetrators “will regret what they have done because they have turned this country into one fist aimed at putting an end to this heinous wound in the body of this nation so that it won’t return.”
Prince Saud said he had not received a request from the US ambassador in Riyadh to intensify security measures around the US installations in the Kingdom prior to the attacks. “But each time the American Embassy or any other embassy seeks the intensification of security measures, the government fulfills this request,” he said.
The foreign minister acknowledged that “there was news coming from everywhere that they were planning a major attack.”
“We had established a committee with the United States to see what we could do, both of us, in order to prevent this attack from happening,” the prince told NBC’s “Today” show. “We came indeed very close to doing that, but unfortunately they were able to do the damage,” he added. An investigation is under way to discover the identities of all nine charred bodies found at the blast sites and believed to have been the suicide bombers.
A senior official at the Ministry of Interior, who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity, said the authorities were seeking the help of forensic experts in the identification process.
“The investigation is under way. But the results of the investigation will take some time, as it involves detailed work by professionals working in the forensic field,” he said.
The official would not comment on reports that a number of the terrorists managed to escape after launching the attacks.
Regarding the presence of special forces police who can now be seen at checkpoints in many of the capital’s streets, the official said that “such security procedures are normal in a situation like this”.
He said that other groups related to the recent terrorist attacks were still being sought by the government.
“The security forces are still looking for groups which could have links to those attacks,” he said.
