JEDDAH, 15 November 2006 — During a routine trash collection in Jeddah’s Al-Ruwais district yesterday morning, a worker found eight machine guns and ammunition in a dumpster two blocks from the US Consulate.
Police said the weapons were old and did not want to speculate on whether they were linked to terrorists. Investigations are still under way and no arrests have so far been made.
A Western security expert commented: “It looks as though some people thought they were about to be caught and so dumped the weapons. The fact that they were dumped near the US Consulate suggests that they were making a statement: ‘We can attack you.’
“There is, however, a more worrying possibility — that terrorists placed the weapons in the dumpster in preparation for an attack on the consulate but something went wrong or, by sheer chance, the weapons were found before an attack could take place.”
On Dec. 6 2004, five gunmen with suspected Al-Qaeda links attacked the US Consulate. Three of the attackers and four security officers were killed during the attack, the Interior Ministry said. The remaining two gunmen were arrested following a gunbattle.
