CAIRO — A massive suicide car bomb tore through a police headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, on Wednesday afternoon, killing at least four people, wounding 148 and turning the wrath of Islamic militants directly on the Saudi government.
The attack apparently signaled a radical new tactic in the string of suicide bombings and shootouts waged by militants against the oil-rich kingdom this last year. It was the most brazen strike yet, designed to kill scores of Saudis in the heart of the capital on a bustling workday. The dead were two Saudi security officers, one civil servant and an 11-year-old Syrian girl.
"This target, a totally Saudi Arabian location, is a big blow to whatever claims they have that they're against only the Americans," said Jamal Khashoggi, a media advisor to Saudi Arabia's ambassador in London. "They must have gone to a really extreme position in their thoughts. It's an unorthodox approach they're adopting."
No group immediately took responsibility for Wednesday's attack; Saudi officials blamed it on a shadowy "group of terrorists that is targeting the kingdom's stability." Saudi officials have said the continuing violence was the work of Islamists affiliated with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network.
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said there was "strong suspicion" that the bombing had been carried out by an Al Qaeda cell.
"Saudi authorities had launched a number of raids in the last week and a half and had located a number of vehicular bombs," the official said. "This may have been an attempt on the part of Al Qaeda elements to strike back at Saudi authorities."
It was midafternoon on the last day of the Saudi workweek when a suicide bomber drove a bomb-laden car toward the seven-story police station. Stopped at the gate by police and concrete barriers, the car blew up. The force of the blast sheared the face off the building and rattled Riyadh for miles around. For hours afterward, rescue crews sifted through the rubble in search of survivors. Thick brown smoke poured into the sky.
"What has happened here? It used to be the safest country in the world," said Ibrahim Majed. Standing two blocks away, Majed was thrown off his feet by the explosion. "What do they want now? Do they want us Saudis to leave our homeland?"
The bombing stood as stark proof of the strength and tenacity of the jihad movement in Saudi Arabia, where its members have long sought to overthrow the ruling family, cut ties with foreigners and install an even more austere form of Islamic rule.
