Car bombs explode in Saudi capital

RIYADH - Two huge car bombs have gone off near Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry and a security unit, in what appears to be the latest strike by al Qaeda in the world's biggest oil exporter.

Security sources said on Wednesday the militants had tried to drive one of the cars into the vast ministry compound in central Riyadh, but it exploded outside one of the gates.

Another car bomb tried to enter a centre for special emergency forces in the capital but was stopped at the gate before police opened fire and it blew up, the sources said.

The blasts sent global oil prices higher, with US crude futures ending up US$1.93 at US$43.70 a barrel.

Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told state television there was no sign of "a large number of casualties" but did not give any more details.

"Both cars were rigged and both were attempted suicide bombings which failed," a Saudi security official said.

"They tried to penetrate the security cordon of the Ministry of Interior and were deterred ... The car exploded in the middle of the road and they never made it inside the compound."

The attacks bore the hallmarks of previous car bombings in the kingdom which the Saudi wing of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for.

Saudi Arabia has been battling for over a year a wave of suicide bombings and shootings by the network's local wing, which is bent on toppling the pro-Western monarchy and driving Westerners out of the birthplace of Islam.

The attack was the first against a government building since an al Qaeda suicide bombing at a security forces building in Riyadh in April.

A Reuters reporter said the eastern gate of the ministry compound, which is on a main avenue near other government buildings, was a mass of tangled metal after the explosion.

The building was superficially damaged, with some windows blown out. Ambulances were at the scene.

Saudi state-owned Ikhbariya television showed a blown up taxi on the main road, with what appeared to be a dead body inside.

Helicopters hovered above the normally busy area, which was cordoned off by police.

Earlier on Wednesday, Saudi police killed a suspected militant in a shootout in Riyadh and captured two wanted militants after a gun battle in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, state television and security sources said.

It was not clear if the militants were on the list of 26 most wanted militants linked to al Qaeda.

Earlier this month, al Qaeda militants stormed the US consulate in Jeddah, killing five non-US staff in the first attack on a Western mission in Saudi.

An audio tape attributed to Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden praised the attack, in which four militants were also killed, and called for strikes on oil facilities in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has been rocked by a surge of Islamic militant violence since May 2003, in which about 170 people have been killed, including Westerners.

- REUTERS