Author:
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: October 8, 2001
Riyadh, October 7 (AFP) - An explosion
in Saudi Arabia which killed two people, one American, may have been carried
out by a Pakistani suicide bomber, a newspaper reported Sunday, but officials
denied links to the US terror attacks.
AlWatan newspaper quoted witnesses
as saying that the blast in the eastern city of Khobar appeared to have
been caused by a suicide bomber, probably a Pakistani, who was killed instantly.
The daily said the perpetrator's
body was blown several meters away.
However, the report could not be
confirmed and the authorities were still trying to identify the badlymutilated
second corpse.
A second American was hurt and a
Briton wounded in the blast, which a US official said was probably unrelated
to the September 11 suicide jetliner attacks in New York and Washington.
"We have no information that a Pakistani
had carried out the attack, and we have not been informed that there were
Pakistani casualties in the explosion," the deputy head of mission at Pakistan's
embassy in Riyadh, Etizaz Ahmad, told AFP.
Okaz newspaper, quoting unnamed
witnesses, said the body of one of the dead men was sliced, which suggested
he could have been carrying the bomb.
However Saudi officials did not
speculate on the reasons for the attack, which follows a series of bombings
in the kingdom linked to alcohol smuggling. A dozen Westerners are in jail
awaiting trial as inquiries continue into bootlegging and the explosions.
The identity of the second man killed
on Sunday night was uncertain but other newspapers said he was probably
a Filipino.
"We are trying to confirm those
reports through contacts with the Saudi authorities," said Philippines
embassy charge d'affaires Mariano Dumia.
