Suicide bombing

last updated 8 January 2015

Riyadh

A car-bomb attack this week in the Saudi capital killed 18 people and wounded more than 120, almost all of them Arabs. The building hit was residential, populated mostly by Lebanese and other foreigners who work in the Saudi oil industry. The bombing was timed for dinner, when families would be gathered to break the fast of the Ramadan holiday. Saudi officials quickly arrested several suspects and blamed the attack on al Qaida. Osama bin Laden and other al Qaida leaders have been increasingly critical of Muslims who work for what they call the corrupt Saudi regime. But targeting Muslims is a departure for the terror group—the only previous attack in Saudi Arabia, in May, was aimed at Westerners—and could well backfire. A commentary on the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said that the bombers had, “with their sinful hands, brought upon themselves social rejection.”