Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Bombing

On November 13, 1995, bombers parked a car filled with explosives next to a building housing U.S. [Page 319]military trainers in the busy commercial district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital. The car exploded, killing at least six people. The Saudi government later arrested, tried, and beheaded four Saudi men for their involvement in the case.

The American service members working in the building were in Riyadh as part of a U.S. Army-run program that trained members of the Saudi National Guard to use U.S.-made tanks and other weapons. The building, a converted apartment complex in the prosperous business and shopping district of al-Olaia, served as headquarters for the training mission. The United States had built up its forces in the region after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the bombing attack was apparently the work of Saudi militants who violently opposed such ...