Saudi attack BBC reporter critical
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A reporter working for the British Broadcasting Corporation remains in a critical condition, a day after he was injured and his Irish colleague killed in a drive-by shooting in Riyadh.
Sunday's shooting in the Saudi capital killed Simon Cumbers, 36, and injured BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, according to the BBC.
It followed a series of attacks in the kingdom targeting foreigners and said to be carried out by militants from Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.
Meanwhile Monday, purported al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia warned in a written statement that they planned attacks on U.S. and other Western airlines and other means of transportation. (Full story)
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed concern for the families of the two journalists, and said the shootings demonstrated the threat terrorists posed around the world.
"We have to be vigilant and get out and get after them and make sure we deal with this issue," Blair said.
Gardner was "in critical but stable condition," British Embassy spokesman Barrie Peach told The Associated Press on Monday.
"He has been transferred to the intensive care unit at the Specialist Hospital."
In London, BBC director of news Richard Sambrook said Gardner, described by the corporation as a "leading expert on al Qaeda," had surgery for abdominal wounds.
"Our thoughts are with the families of Simon and Frank tonight," said Sambrook. "We are in touch with them and offering them all the support that we can."
Chris Cramer, president of the International News Safety Institute and managing director of CNN International, said: "Today's deliberate attack on yet more colleagues proves that our profession is in terrible danger from those who prefer to see us dead or injured.
"The profession needs to proceed with the utmost caution and the maximum sharing of information in hostile areas. Our thoughts and prayers are with the BBC and the families of those who were targeted."
The journalists, who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week, were walking in a neighborhood on the south side of Riyadh on Sunday when men in a passing car opened fire on them, a senior official at the Saudi Interior Ministry told CNN.
The assailants escaped, a Western diplomat said.
The official Saudi Press Agency, quoting Riyadh's police chief, blamed the attack on "unknown gunmen" and said an investigation was under way.
But the Interior Ministry official blamed Islamic militants who have carried out a series of attacks on attacks on Western citizens in the kingdom in the past year.
Sunday's shooting came a week after 22 people died in the Saudi oil city of Khobar in a hostage standoff that ended with Saudi troops storming the residential compound where militants had taken more than 200 people hostage.
Three of the hostage-takers were allowed to escape after they threatened to kill more of their captives.
CNNArabic.com Editor Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.
