RIYADH, 4 January 2005 — Tons of explosive materials were used in last week’s twin suicide bombings in Riyadh, the Ministry of Interior said yesterday.
The vehicle used in the Dec. 29 attack near the Interior Ministry building was a car “laden with around 1.5 tons of explosive mixes, including ammonal and other commercial explosives,” said a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
Another car carrying 1.3 tons of “the same explosive mixes” detonated 380 meters away from the base of the special security forces in eastern Riyadh “after coming under fire from guards at the base,” it said.
The ministry has said that five terrorists carried out the two attacks in which it said no civilians or security men were killed.
Yesterday’s statement also identified the third bomber in the attack targeting the ministry as Ismael Ali Mohammad Al-Khuzaim, a Saudi. “He collected information about foreign residents and participated in murdering one of them after kidnapping him,” the statement said, in an apparent reference to American aeronautics engineer Paul Johnson, who was abducted and beheaded last June by the so-called “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula”.
The two others in the ministry attack have been named as Abdullah Saud Al-Subaiei, one of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted, and Mohammad Mohsen Al-Osaimi.
The pair who attacked the special security base were identified as Dakheel Abdul Aziz Dakheel Mohammad Al-Obeid and Nasser Ali Saad Al-Motairi.
Suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds more in Saudi Arabia since launching a spate of bombings and shootings, many of which have targeted foreigners, in May 2003.
Mosul Bomber Was Saudi
Meanwhile Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, said yesterday a Saudi medical student had carried out last month’s suicide bombing against a US Army base that killed 22 people in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“Ahmad Said Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, who was a second-year medicine student at Khartoum University... carried out the Mosul attack,” the most deadly on US forces in Iraq, the paper said.
Al-Ghamdi’s family started receiving condolences after his father was told of his death “by a group claiming to be part of the Iraqi resistance.”
Al-Ghamdi, aged “around 20,” joined Khartoum University when his family was based in Sudan, and remained there after their return to Saudi Arabia, the daily said.
His family had known before the Dec. 21 attack that he had quit his studies to go to Iraq.
“His father was shocked to find out on Dec. 16 his decision to quit his studies and use the family money given to him for living expenses... to travel to Iraq,” Asharq Al-Awsat said.
Al-Ghamdi called his father upon his arrival in Iraq to inform him “of his intent to fight there”, it added.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Army of Ansar Al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack on the US military base in Mosul that killed 22 people, including 14 US soldiers. It released footage on Dec. 26 that appeared to be a videotape of the attack and showed what looked like the explosion in the base’s mess hall.
