ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
A powerful truck bomb tore through apartment buildings at a U.S. Air Force housing complex Tuesday, killing 23 Americans and injuring more than 300, officials said. President Clinton vowed, ``The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished.''
Declaring, ``America takes care of its own,'' President Clinton dispatched an FBI team to assist in the investigation.
The Air Force put the death toll at 23. At least 105 people sustained serious injuries, and 240 were treated and released. All of the dead and injured were Americans, Pentagon officials said.
The explosion hit a U.S. military housing area at the edge of a Saudi base near Dhahran. It ripped the front off an eight-story apartment building housing American servicemen, and punched a crater 35 feet deep and 85 feet across.
A U.S. airman in a security observation tower had reported a fuel truck outside the compound as suspicious. When a Saudi officer approached the truck, two men jumped out, got into a white car and drove off, a senior Defense Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Authorities tried to evacuate two apartment buildings, the official said, but the bomb went off before people could get out.
"I heard a deafening noise, and then the windows shattered and the walls fell in," said Staff Sgt. Tyler Christie, 31, who was slightly injured. "People were running everywhere." Christie of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., spoke to The Associated Press by telephone.
A building across from the base was all but destroyed, and police cars and ambulances filled the streets around the compound of modern concrete high-rises. Glass from shattered shop windows and car windshields covered the streets for several blocks in all directions.
"We thought it was the end of the world," said Walid, a njured in the blast, said, "I heard a deafening noise, and then the windows shattered and the walls fell in." Besides the U.S. Air Force personnel living in the housing area, there also were Army soldiers who operate a Patriot missile air defense unit and a signal battalion.
The Defense Department official who described the incident to reporters at the Pentagon stressed that the information on casualties was preliminary and the toll could climb.
The official said a series of suspicious incidents had been reported in the area over the past several months, and security measures had been tightened as a result. He said the incidents involved cars driving slowly by, or stopping briefly - all of which he said were not considered serious.
The explosion occurred about 35 yards from the nearest apartment building, the official said. There was no word on the type of bomb, but the official said it may have weighed as much as 5,000 pounds.
A statement issued by the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, said the truck exploded outside the northern fence of the Khobar Towers on King Abdul Aziz Air Base near Dhahran.
At the State Department in Washington, spokesman Glyn Davies said a tanker truck was driven to the northeast corner of the compound and the occupants fled.
``Moments afterward, the explosion occurred,'' he said.
Clinton said, ``The explosion appears to be the work of terrorists. If that is the case, like all Americans I am outraged by it.''
Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, at a campaign stop in Cleveland, condemned the attack and offered his ``heartfelt hopes and sympathies to the families of those who may have been injured.''
Clinton spoke tersely and angrily. ``Let me say again, we will pursue this.
"The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished," he said before striding from the briefing room at the White House.
First word of the bombing came from Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall at a House National Security Committee hearing.
In Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, the official Saudi Press Agency said the explosion occurred about 10:30 p.m. Officials at the Pentagon said the Air Force's 4404th Air Wing is based at the site. At least 2,000 Americans are stationed there.
Included in the 4404th Wing are two fighter units: the 79th Fighter Wing from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., which flies F-16 fighters, and the 33rd Fighter Wings from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., which flies F-15 strike fighters. The planes help enforce U.N. "no fly" zones over Iraq.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: MAP BY APby CNB