A TRUCK bomb exploded a US military compound in Saudi Arabia last night killing 19 people and seriously injuring another 105, most of them Americans. President Clinton said the blast appeared to be the work of terrorists.
The explosion occurred at the US military housing complex on the King Abdul Aziz Air Base in Khobar near Dhahran, on Saudi Arabia's east coast. US officials said the driver or drivers of the vehicle fled after the blast.
A warning had been given, but base authorities did not have enough time to evacuate the buildings nearest the truck, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Officials described the vehicle as a type of tanker truck carrying fuel and said it drove to the north east corner of the compound and backed against a fence near a dormitory housing US and other troops.
A defence official said there was an initial report that two men got out of the truck and a Saudi guard had just stopped one of them when the truck exploded.
Pentagon officials said the explosion lit up the night sky at 9:55 p.m. local time. It opened up a large crater.
"The explosion appears to be the work of terrorists and if that is the case, like all Americans, I am outraged by it," a grim faced President Clinton said. "The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go Unpunished."
State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said that in addition to US forces there were French, British and some Saudis in the area. The troops were all from the residual military force left from the 1991 Gulf War.
Mr Clinton said an FBI team would soon depart for Saudi Arabia to assist in the investigation.
The US Central Command, which has responsibility for armed forces stationed in Saudi Arabia, said in a statement that the blast had damaged some buildings housing US military personnel.
The commander of the Joint Task Force Southwest Asia ordered tightened security measures throughout Saudi Arabia, the statement said.
The latest attack came on the heels of a car bombing on November 13th at a US Saudi military training centre in Riyadh "which killed seven people, five Americans and two Indians. That bombing was claimed by three militant Islamic groups demanding the departure of US troops from Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia said the explosion at a building belonging to the Defence Ministry and housing "foreigners" in the eastern part of the kingdom caused deaths and injuries.
A Saudi Interior Ministry statement said the blast was "outside a building belonging to the Defence Ministry where foreigners live".
The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), said the explosion, which rocked the eastern city of Khohar last night, left "deaths and injuries".
It did not give any other details. SPA said the ministry would issue further details later.
"The explosion appears to be the work of terrorists and if that, is the case, like all Americans, I, am outraged by it. The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished, a grim faced President Clinton told reporters at a hastily called White House briefing.
Residents of Khobar, which is close to Dhahran, said the explosion shook the city.
A journalist working in the city said he believed most, of the injuries were caused by flying glass and shrapnel. He said most of the casualties were taken to the armed forces hospital in Dhahran, which was a main base for US led multinational forces which drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991. The targeted building was on, the beach front in Khobar, a few kilometres from the King Fahd causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, residents said.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies said the explosion was "near some dormitory towers at a compound at which we have US troops belonging to the Joint Task Force Southwest Asia."
"What we know is some kind of a tanker truck carrying some sort of fuel drove to the north east corner of this compound. The driver or drivers of the vehicle fled moments after the explosion occurred" he said.
The Ministry of Defence said. "There are no British servicemen involved."
It is understood that around 250 British troops share the heavily guarded base with several thousand Americans.
The majority of the Britons are from 9 Squadron of the RAF, posted to Dhahran from RAF in Germany to crew and support a six strong detachment of Tornados based there since the Gulf War.
There are no French troops among the casualties, the French defence ministry said in Paris. A detachment of 130 French troops is based there to help enforce the UN imposed no fly area in southern Iraq.
The bombing at the Saudi National Guard training centre in Riyadh last November 13th killed five Americans and two Indians shattering the myth that Saudi" Arabia was immune to the political violence that has rattled other Middle Eastern countries.
The worst bombing against a US target was the attack on the US Marine barracks in Beirut on October 23rd, 1983, when 241 marines and sailors were killed.
A warning issued by the State Department on May 16th said the embassy had received an anonymous threatening telephone call and had also received drawings implying bomb threats against American personnel or institutions, including the Saudi American International School in Riyadh.
The US State Department warned US citizens in the Gulf state in May of possible attacks after the arrest of four Saudi Muslim fundamentalists charged with the November attack.
The four confessed on state television in April that they were behind the blast and said they were influenced by Islamic groups outside the kingdom, the world's largest oil producer and exporter. The four were beheaded in May.
The US embassy had "received an anonymous telephone call threatening retaliation against Americans in Saudi Arabia if the four Saudis charged with the bombing are punished."
The Saudi Defence Minister, Prince Sultan in Abdel Aziz, later played down the risk of an anti US attack in the kingdom after the threats were received by the US embassy.