RIYADH, 10 November 2003 — Housing compounds and embassies reviewed their security arrangements yesterday following Saturday night’s bombings which left a number of expatriates dead and scores of men, women and children injured.
Western embassies also urged their nationals to remain vigilant and restrict their movement to and inside the Kingdom.
Britain and Canada have advised their citizens to defer non-essential travel to the Kingdom, while the US, French, Italian, Austrian and German embassies urged their communities against non-essential movement outside housing areas.
The United States shut its diplomatic missions on Saturday for a security review and said they would remain closed to the public.
“We advise British nationals against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia. We believe terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks,” the British Foreign Office said in an updated advisory.
Austrian Ambassador Dr. Harald Wiesner told Arab News yesterday the embassy had beefed up security. “A revised security plan is in place after extensive discussions.” He said there were no Austrians living in the bombed compound.
“One German family living in Al-Muhaya Compound is safe,” said Elmar Jacobs, a spokesman of the German Embassy, adding that he had no knowledge of the second German family believed to be living in the compound. Jacobs said the embassy was open “for public and routine work on Sunday, and there is no plan to close it down.”
Umberto Saccone, a spokesman of the Italian Embassy, said that the mission was open for normal business but urged Italian expatriates to be vigilant and alert.
No Italian families were staying in the compound.
The French Embassy said three French families living on the compound escaped unharmed although their homes were damaged.
The bombed Al-Muhaya Compound, housing mostly Arab foreigners, is about one-and-a-half miles away from the Diplomatic Quarter where the United States, Britain, Germany and other Western countries have their embassies. The compound manager, Hanadi Al-Khandakli, said several Western families lived at the Al-Muhaya Compound although most residents were Arabs including Saudis.
Al-Muhaya Compound, formerly known as Deyar Al-Nakheel or Boeing Compound, is in Wadi Al-Laban to the south of the Diplomatic Quarter. Most of the housing compounds in Riyadh are located in little clumps around the capital’s ring road and the Khorais Highway and are therefore easy targets for terrorists, according to a senior compound worker who did not want to be named.
Some of the compounds, he said, had been regularly receiving anonymous calls threatening the workers or hoax bomb warnings.
