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By ADNAN MALIK, Associated Press Writer
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronized strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off multiple suicide car bombs, killing at least 29 people, including nine bombers. Seven Americans were among the victims, officials reported Tuesday.
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An hour after saying that the death toll was 91, a State Department official said the actual figure was much closer to the Saudi estimate of 29.
Authorities found nine charred bodies believed to be those of the suicide attackers, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said.
The bombings, which took place about 11:30 p.m. Monday, constituted one of the deadliest terror attacks on Americans since Sept. 11, 2001, and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said the coordinated strike had "the earmarks of al-Qaida."
"Terrorism strikes anywhere, everyone," Powell said. "It is a threat to the entire civilized world."
President Bush (news - web sites) vowed to hunt down the attackers.
"These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate, and the United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice," he said during an appearance in Indianapolis.
A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 91 people were killed. The official gave no breakdown by nationality. Earlier, the Saudi official said 194 people were wounded, most of them slightly. At least 40 Americans were wounded, U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan said.
The seven Americans killed lived in a four-story building that was heavily damaged. Seventy Americans employed by the Vinnell Corp., a Virginia company with a contract to train Saudi military and civilian officials, lived in the building. By chance, 50 were away on a training exercise.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire moments before one of the cars exploded.
One survivor, John Gardiner from Kinghorn, Scotland, told the British Broadcasting Corp. the blasts were "absolutely terrifying." "All the doors came in, the external doors, the internal doors, all the windows, and the next think I knew I was lying on my back in shattered glass," he said.
The force of the blast ripped through multi-story apartment buildings and single-family houses. Facades of five- and four- story buildings were sheared off. Heaps of rubble and blocks of upended concrete surrounded twisted steel bars and knocked downed palm trees. Burned-out hulks that had been cars were still in their parking spots; upended furniture and debris littered a pool deck.
There was no claim of responsibility. If the al-Qaida connection is confirmed, it would show that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network is still capable of mounting coordinated attacks, even in one of the world's most tightly policed countries.
Before being uprooted in the U.S. war in Afghanistan (news - web sites), the group carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the 1998 simultaneous car bombings outside American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 230 people.
The Riyadh attack came as the United States is pulling out most of the 5,000 troops it had based in Saudi Arabia, whose presence fueled anti-American sentiment. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week that most would be gone by the end of the summer.
Bin Laden has repeatedly railed against the presence of what he calls "infidel" troops on Muslim holy land.
The Saudi Interior Ministry official said at least 20 people were killed in the latest attack, including seven Americans, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Powell, who arrived Tuesday on a previously scheduled visit despite the attacks, said at least 10 Americans were among the dead. He later said it was possible the death toll was lower. Seven Americans were among the more than 200 people killed in the October terror bombings in Bali, Indonesia.
The Saudi Interior Ministry official said the attackers used cars packed with explosives in suicide operations. He said the blasts also killed seven Saudis, two Jordanians, two Filipinos, one Lebanese and one Swiss at the three compounds.
Saudi Arabia has a large population of expatriate workers, including about 35,000 Americans. The U.S. Central Command said there were no reports of casualties among American service members.
The attacks were followed by a smaller bombing Tuesday near the headquarters of a Saudi-U.S. company. No casualties were reported.
A guard at one of the housing compounds in the northeastern Riyadh was quoted by the Saudi paper al-Watan as saying that seven cars exploded there, all apparently carrying suicide bombers. At least three bodies could be seen lying on the ground Tuesday morning.
Police vehicles, lights flashing, patrolled the walls of the compounds and kept reporters out. The Al-Hamra compound, which suffered one of the worst attacks, was hidden behind 20-foot walls. Surveillance cameras were posted along the walls.
Most of the homes in such compounds are large, single-family villas. Behind high walls, Westerners can escape Saudi restrictions such as the requirement that women outside the home wear enveloping robes. Residents tend to work as corporate executives, oil industry professionals and teachers.
Two of the complexes hit Monday were named after cities in Spain conquered by the Muslim empire in the 13th century. Al-Hamra is Arabic for Alhambra and Eshbiliya is Seville. The third target is named for Vinnell.
Powell was greeted on his arrival by Prince Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, who expressed his sorrow and vowed to cooperate with the United States in fighting terrorism.
"It is no consolation, but these things happen everywhere," Saud said. "It should increase our efforts and should make us not hesitate to take whatever measures that are needed to oppose these people, who know only hate, only killing."
An intelligence official in Washington said information from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaida had been planning a strike in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's birthplace and home to Islam's holiest sites.
State Department officials said the American school in Riyadh would be closed and advised Americans to remain at home until further notice.
Earlier this month, the State Department advised Americans to avoid travel to Saudi Arabia because of increased terrorism concerns, and the U.S. Embassy said it had information that terrorists were completing plans to attack American interests in the country.
The FBI (news - web sites) said it would send investigators once it gets clearance from the Saudi government.
The Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, told Saudi newspapers the assailants were believed to be linked to the May 6 discovery of a large weapons cache.
The Saudi government was seeking 19 suspects in that case — 17 Saudis, a Yemeni, and an Iraqi with Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship — that it believed received orders directly from bin Laden. The government said the group had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests.
The gated communities attacked Monday were in the same part of the city where the May 6 weapons seizure was made.
Justice Department (news - web sites) and FBI officials had no immediate indication that other attacks might be planned against U.S. interests at home or abroad.
Nayef told al-Watan that one of the weapons case suspects surrendered — it was unclear when — and was being interrogated for information about Monday's explosions. So far he had offered "limited information," Nayef said.
A previously unknown Saudi group, the Mujahedeen in the Arabian Peninsula, had linked itself to the cache. Over the weekend, it vowed on an Internet site to strike American targets worldwide. It was not clear whether the Riyadh attacks were linked to the group.
Tuesday's small blast went off near the headquarters of the Saudi Maintenance Company, also known as Siyanco. The company is a jointly owned by Frank E. Basil Inc., of Washington, and local Saudi partners, officials said.
Last month, an American civilian working for the Saudi Royal Navy was attacked and slightly injured in eastern Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran.
In 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S.-run military training facility in Riyadh, killing seven, including five American advisers to the Saudi national guard. The Islamic Movement for Change and two smaller groups claimed responsibility.