Faraj: Bombing shocks Saudi officials
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Caroline Faraj
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(CNN) -- A bomb attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 100 late Saturday when explosives-laden cars targeted an affluent neighborhood near the city's diplomatic quarter.
The Saudi government on Sunday blamed al Qaeda, vowing to track down those responsible for the bombing. CNN's Caroline Faraj spoke from Dubai with anchor Wolf Blitzer about the Saudi reaction.
BLITZER: Give us the reaction of the Saudi government. How specific do they say their intelligence is, their information is that al Qaeda is responsible for this car bombing?
FARAJ: They're claiming al Qaeda is responsible because they're saying they used the same tools and strategy that were used in the Riyadh [suicide] bombing on May 12.
BLITZER: There was a similar bombing in May, as you point out. But that seemed to be going after Western residents in Riyadh. This one seemed to be going after strictly Arab residents, whether Lebanese or Egyptian or others living in Riyadh. [Democratic Sen. Joe] Biden on this program a while ago suggested that could be a significant difference. Is it?
FARAJ: It is a significant difference, Wolf. And according to the officials in Saudi Arabia, they are shocked this happened and they're saying that al Qaeda are always claiming they're against the Westerners and targeting Western targets but this time they're killing during Ramadan, supposedly a spiritual time. Muslims are killing their brother Muslims. So there are a lot of flags raised.
Politicians I talked to are basically saying we cannot find out why ... these terrorists are against the way these compounds are basically running. Like they're saying people are socializing, women and men, having swimming pools, living a life which is not acceptable to some fundamentalists. So basically they're trying, according to the politicians I talked to, to force their own way.
