JEDDAH, 2 May 2004 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, said yesterday that he believed foreign hands were behind the recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.
“We are 95 percent sure, if not 100 percent, that foreign hands are behind these events,” the crown prince told a group of princes, ministers and senior officials who came to meet him.
However, Prince Abdullah emphasized that Saudi Arabia would confront terrorists who try to undermine the country’s security with an iron hand.
“We will track down this deviant group, no matter how long it takes,” he said in an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda sympathizers. The Kingdom has intensified its campaign to stamp out terrorism.
“Your country is targeted and you know who is behind all this. ... Regrettably, they have deceived some of our sons,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Prince Abdullah as saying.
“They have fallen into their (trap) and the latest such incident took place in Yanbu where they killed seven people including five expatriates, a National Guard officer and a policeman and wounded 25 others,” he said.
An Interior Ministry official later confirmed that two Americans, two Britons and one Australian were killed in an attack by four gunmen in Yanbu. Three others — with Pakistani, American and Canadian citizenships — were injured” in the shooting, said a ministry official quoted by the SPA.
“What was the sin of these people?” the crown prince asked and emphasized the need for patience, self-assessment and action. “At present even those who keep silent will be accused that he is one among them or deceived by foreigners.
“Now our sons kill their own brethren. They killed those who stand alert for your security and security of your families and children,” he pointed out.
The crown prince described the terrorists as “followers of Satan and colonialists” but emphasized that the Kingdom would defeat its enemies. “We should not show any lenience or negligence in dealing with terrorists,” he told security and military officers.
Saudi Ambassador to Britain Prince Turki Al-Faisal said the Yanbu attack would only strengthen the Kingdom’s resolve to eradicate terrorists.
“We will not be discouraged by this brutal incident in which innocent lives were lost, British, American, Australian, as well as Saudi Arabian, and many other people were injured in an indiscriminate evil rampage,” the ambassador was quoted as saying after yesterday’s attack.
“Instead, it will strengthen our long-standing resolve to eradicate terrorist activity and to combat this evil wherever we find it, in every corner of the Kingdom,” Prince Turki added.
