Saudi security authorities have detained three men in connection with an explosion that targeted a top security official, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Okaz, quoting an unnamed security official, said three men were arrested shortly after Monday's attack. The car was empty when it exploded in Riyadh's eastern Al-Salaam district and nobody was injured as a result of the explosion.
Police stopped a white Toyota Tercel after a witness described a similar car leaving the site of the explosion soon after it took place, the paper said. The car is believed to be rented, security sources told Okaz daily.
Meanwhile, a Western diplomat said the attack was against a senior member of the Interior Ministry's "Mabahith" branch.
The daily, in addition, quoted the official as saying the targeting of police officers "will not stop security from working to root out terror cells." He said the incident "carried the fingerprints of extremist thought," the newspaper said.
A radical Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for attack. The claim from the Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques appeared in a statement posted on several Islamist websites warning "the officer and those like him against pursuing their war against Islamists," in the kingdom.
"In the framework of our plan to kill the infidel imams and the troops of dictatorship, we declare that we are responsible for the blast which targeted intelligence service officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim al-Dhaleh ... after we discovered the crimes committed by this apostate against the Jihad fighters," said the statement. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
