THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260380
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 156 lines
A powerful truck bomb tore through apartment buildings at a U.S. Air Force complex in Saudi Arabia Tuesday night, killing 19 Americans and injuring more than 300, officials said.
President Clinton vowed, ``The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished.'' Declaring that ``America takes care of its own,'' Clinton dispatched an FBI team to assist in the investigation.
The explosion, so powerful it all but destroyed one building and blasted a crater 35 feet deep and 85 feet across, hit a U.S. military housing area at the edge of a Saudi base near Dhahran in eastern Saudi Arabia. British, French and Saudi troops are based there as well, and officials said the Saudis also may have suffered casualties.
Reverberations from the explosion could be felt 50 miles away across the water in Bahrain.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, but U.S. officials were working on the assumption that it was a terrorist attack.
A U.S. airman in a security observation tower had reported the fuel truck as suspicious, and an attempt was made to evacuate two apartment buildings, said a senior Defense Department official.
When the truck was approached by a Saudi officer, two men jumped out, got into a white car and drove off, the official said.
The blast went off before people could get out, said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
About 105 Americans were considered seriously injured, many suffering burns. Another 240 were treated and released.
The death toll made it the worst terrorist blast involving Americans in the Middle East since the 1983 bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 American servicemen.
Tuesday's explosion occurred less than a month after the Saudis beheaded four Muslim militants convicted of setting off a car bomb last Nov. 13 at a U.S.-run military training facility, killing five Americans and two Indians.
Last month, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued a security advisory to the 35,000-strong American community in Saudi Arabia, informing them of anonymous warnings of retaliation against U.S. interests if the four were punished. An American security team had just completed a review of facilities in Saudi Arabia, a senior Pentagon official said, although another senior military official said U.S. forces in the region ``were not at a high security alert.''
An Air Force sergeant, slightly injured in Tuesday's blast, said, ``I heard a deafening noise and then the windows shattered and the walls fell in.''
``People were running everywhere,'' Staff Sgt. Tyler Christie, 31, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., said by telephone. ``A few buildings were destroyed,'' he said.
Besides the U.S. Air Force personnel living in the housing area, there also were Army soldiers who operate a Patriot air defense unit and a signals battalion.
The Defense Department official who described the incident to reporters at the Pentagon stressed that the information on casualties was preliminary and that the totals could climb.
The official said a series of suspicious incidents had been reported in the area over the past several months, and that security measures had been tightened as a result. He described the incidents as cases of 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. ************** ************
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,'' he said. ``Those who did it 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 p.m. Saudi time, or 2 p.m. EDT.
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 Wing from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., which flies F-15 strike fighters. The planes help enforce U.N. ``no fly'' zones over Iraq.
A squadron of Langley Air Force Base F-15s, part of the regular rotation, left Tuesday morning for the flight to Dhahran but had not arrived at the time of the bombing.
In Jerusalem, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said U.S. officials in Dhahran would help the Saudis track down those who ``committed this crime.''
``Obviously this is a horrific event,'' said Burns, who accompanied Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Israel.
Devastating by any standard, the blast seemed especially shocking in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, which historically has avoided the kind of extremist violence that has long plagued its poorer neighbors. But last year's attack in Riyadh shattered whatever sense of untouchability that existed, and Tuesday's explosion suggested such violence may become a more frequent threat.
If the terrorists had support of a foreign state, the list of possible suspects would include the other two principal Persian Gulf powers, Iran and Iraq, both of which are hostile to Saudi Arabia and the United States, and have often been accused of sponsoring terrorism. But as last November's car bombing showed, homegrown Islamic extremists also pose a dangerous challenge to Saudi rule.
The United States has long maintained close ties to Saudi Arabia, which in addition to its oil riches is a major consumer of American arms as well as a discreet partner in the Middle East peace process. MEMO: The Associated Press, The Washington Post and Virginian-Pilot
Washington correspondent Dale Eisman contributed to this report.
Related story about Air Force unit from Langley Air Force Base on page
A1.
ATTACKS ON U.S.
April 18, 1983 - A car bomb explodes at the U.S. Embassy in west
Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. Islmaic Jihad claims
responsibility.
Oct. 23, 1983 - A truck bomb smashes into the U.S. Marine
headquarters at the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. servicemen. Islamic
Jihad claims responsibility.
Sept. 20, 1984 - the Embassy's annex in Aukar, a suburb of Beirut, is
bombed. At least 14 people, including two Americans, are killed.
April 14, 1988 - A bomb thought to be under or in a car explodes
outside a club for American troops in Naples, Italy. At least five
people, including an American sailor, are killed and 15 others,
including several American sailors, are wounded. The bomb exploded on
the second anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Libya.
Nov. 13, 1995 - Seven people, including five Americans, are killed
and 37 injured after a car bomb explodes in the Saudi capitol of Riyadh.
The bombing destroyed the headquarters of an American-run military
training center. Saudi authorities beheaded four Muslim militants who
confessed to the bombing.
THE BASE
At least 2,000 2,000 Americans are stationed at King Abdul Aziz Air Base
near Dhahran, including the Air Force's 4404th Air Wing.
Included in the 4404th are 2 fighter units: the 79th from Shaw in S.C.
and the 33rd from Eglin in Fla. These groups help enforce U.N. "no fly"
regular rotation but had not arrived at the time of the bombing.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The Target: The Khobar Towers housing complex in a 1994 photo
Color map
Color photo
President Clinton...
by CNB