A car bomb that killed 17 people and injured 122 in Riyadh at the weekend was part of a campaign by al-Qaida to overthrow the Saudi monarchy, a US official said yesterday. “It is quite clear to me that al-Qaida wants to take down the royal family and the government of Saudi Arabia,” the deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, told al-Arabiya television. Mr Armitage, who arrived in the Saudi capital on Sunday for scheduled talks about counter-terrorism, said the attack on a housing complex by men dressed as police bore the hallmark of al-Qaida – and he expected more to follow. Observers said yesterday that the attack would probably intensify Saudi Arabia’s security cooperation with the US and might also reduce popular sympathy for Osama bin Laden within the kingdom. Full Story
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