Saudi, U.S. officials warn of new attacks

Riyadh - Saudi and U.S. officials have new intelligence pointing to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group possibly launching fresh terrorist attacks in the United States or against American interests overseas.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington told reporters late Monday that "there is chatter, a high level of chatter regionally and in other international spots" about possible attacks in Saudi Arabia or America.

"My gut feeling tells me something big is going to happen here or in America," Prince Bandar bin Sultan said in Riyadh, the scene of last week's suicide bombing that killed 34 people, including eight Americans.

Prince Bandar is known for handling delicate diplomatic tasks for his government and rushed back to Riyadh following the May 12 car bombing attacks on three housing compounds.

The FBI (news - web sites) has also warned that al-Qaida could mount new attacks in the United States as well as target American and Western interests overseas.

"The U.S. intelligence community assesses that attacks against U.S. and Western targets overseas are likely; attacks in the United States cannot be ruled out," says an FBI bulletin dispatched to state and local law enforcement agencies around the country.

The bulletin was described to The Associated Press by federal law enforcement officials on condition of anonymity.

Prince Bandar said Saudi authorities had received advance warning of a terror attack hitting Saudi Arabia before the Riyadh bombings. "Yes, we had warning, yes we had heightened alert but we never had a specific time and place designated," he said.

Earlier Monday, a man standing with a gun outside the U.S. Consulate in Dhahran, 300 miles east of Riyadh, was arrested and was being questioned by Saudi police, a U.S. Embassy official said.

U.S. diplomats said no one was injured or threatened in the incident, but that the consulate was closed until further notice. In 1996, a truck bombing killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers barracks near Dhahran.

Prince Bandar said man was armed with a machine gun and a pistol, was wanted by police on drugs charges and was seeking political asylum.

The ambassador also told reporters that Saudi authorities had obtained information during recent months that al-Qaida had been wracked by internal divisions.

Saudi officials believe the terror group's leaders had been so split that they didn't want to risk carrying out any attacks in Saudi Arabia, which is bin Laden's birthplace, in order to maintain their intellectual base within the Gulf kingdom.

"(But) they have mended their differences and decided to come out," said Prince Bandar, who is known for his close relations with the U.S. administration.

The Riyadh attacks have been seen as not only an attack on U.S. and other Western interests, but also a strike on the Saudi government for its close ties with America and decision following the 1991 Gulf War to allow American troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden said the U.S. presence defiles the country, which is custodian of Islam's two holiest shrines.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Saudi authorities have arrested four suspects apparently linked to al-Qaida over the car bombings. Asked whether the men in custody belonged to the terrorist group, Nayef said, "All indications point to that."

His remarks were the strongest sign yet that bin Laden's terrorists may have played a part in the bombings in the Saudi capital.

A U.S. official said Saudi investigators were "being totally cooperative," despite Nayef's comments a day earlier that American investigators were only observing the investigation.

More than 60 FBI and other U.S. investigators are assisting Saudi authorities with the probe into Monday's attacks.

The U.S. official said that there weren't "tens of thousands of active al-Qaida members" in the kingdom, but "we believe the al-Qaida presence here is more than a single cell or two."

Nayef told reporters that investigators had identified three of the badly mangled bodies of nine Saudi men thought to have carried out the Riyadh attacks. The three were among 19 suspects sought in connection with a weapons cache found May 6 linked to al-Qaida.

The government had said the 19 were believed to be receiving orders directly from the Saudi-born bin Laden and had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family and American and British interests.

Al-Qaida has been blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the October 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemen that killed 17 American sailors. Al-Qaida espouses a militant form of Islam and opposes what it sees as Western attempts to control the Arab world. It has criticized the Saudi royal family for its close ties to America. -- Associated Press

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