Earlier Attempted Assault On Americans Reported

Terrorists tried to bomb a Saudi Arabian shopping center frequented by American civilians three days before the lethal attack on a U.S. military complex in Dhahran, a Saudi dissident said Thursday.

“The most worrying aspect is those who planted the bomb are obviously regarding every American as the enemy. That is most dangerous,” said Mohammed al-Masari, who publishes reports from his London base on alleged human rights abuses by the Saudi royal family.

Al-Masari told reporters the earlier bombing attempt was at a shopping mall in Jeddah, and that the bomb was defused. He said he received the information from three sources in Saudi Arabia, including one in the security services.

“It seems as though it was a small package, but it would have been devastating,” al-Masari said.

He did not specify what group planted the bomb or who defused it, or say whether American authorities were aware of the alleged attempt. His claim could not immediately be confirmed.

In a statement, he said that the June 23 bombing at a U.S. Air Force base in Dhahran was part of a larger campaign.

“It is only one manifestation of evolving reality of the coming battle being forced on all Muslims, not only those of the Arabian Peninsula, by the U.S. occupation of Arabia and the existence of the illegitimate, racist and genocidal Zionist state of Israel,” read the statement from his Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights.

Another Saudi appearing at a news conference said anti-government forces believe “all foreign forces in the country are legitimate targets.”

“We do advise the Western public and people to put pressure on their regimes to withdraw their forces - otherwise there will be many casualties,” said Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder of al-Muhajiroun, an Islamic group based in Britain.

A member of a leading Saudi family and a physics professor at King Saud University, al-Masari was arrested in May 1993 and held for six months before he fled to Britain. He said he was tortured while in custody.

Britain denied him asylum but a judge blocked his expulsion and the government agreed to let him stay.