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Machine guns found hidden near U.S. embassy in Riyad
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
ABU DHABI — On Nov. 14, Saudi authorities found eight machine guns and bullets in a
garbage bin near the U.S. consulate in Jedda. Nobody was injured and Saudi
authorities did not report the arrest of suspects.
The consulate has come under a series of attacks since 2004. They
included
an Al Qaida penetration of the consulate compound in December 2004 as well
as drive-by shootings in 2006.
The Jedda-based Arab News said the machine guns were old, and police did
not link this to Al Qaida, Middle East Newsline reported. But on Nov. 15, the newspaper quoted a "Western
security expert" as citing two possibilities.
"It looks as though some people thought they were about to be caught and
so dumped the weapons," the Western expert said. "The fact that they were
dumped near the U.S. consulate suggests that they were making a statement:
'We can attack you.'"
Another scenario was that Al Qaida placed the weapons in the garbage bin
in preparation to storm the consulate. The expert said this was a more
worrisome prospect.
"There is, however, a more worrying possibility," the expert said, "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."
Western diplomats said the U.S. embassy and consultate have bolstered
security and limited operations at diplomatic facilities in Saudi Arabia.
They said Riyad and Washington have found evidence of Al Qaida attack plans.
Copyright © 2006 East West
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