A BBC cameraman was shot dead and a fellow journalist wounded in Riyadh on Sunday, the latest in a string of terror attacks by suspected Islamist extremists increasingly targeting Westerners in Saudi Arabia.
Barely a week after gunmen killed 22 people, including several Westerners, in a shooting rampage and hostage-taking drama in the eastern oil city of Al-Khobar, the Irish cameraman and British journalist came under fire in the Al-Suwaidi district in Riyadh near the home of a top wanted militant.
PHOTO: AFP
The BBC confirmed in London late on Sunday that cameraman Simon Cumbers, 36, was killed while security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, was injured and was being treated in hospital in the Saudi capital.
Gardner "is a leading expert on Al-Qaeda and works full-time reporting on the war on terror," the BBC said in a statement.
Al-Qaeda sympathizers are blamed for the terror campaign which has killed more than 85 people and injured hundreds in Saudi Arabia since May last year.
Cumbers was "a freelance journalist and cameraman who has worked throughout the world filming international news stories for the BBC and for news organizations such as Associated Press Television and ITN," the BBC said.
Hospital sources here said Gardner was out of danger after undergoing surgery at Al-Iman hospital. They said he would be moved to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the capital.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the attack and expressed admiration for Gardner.
"I utterly condemn the attack on BBC journalists in Riyadh today," Straw said in a statement. "I extend my sympathy to the family of the cameraman who was killed and my thoughts are with Frank Gardner, his family, colleagues and friends."
He added: "We will continue to do all we can to support the Saudi authorities in their fight against terrorism."
Gardner, a fluent Arabic speaker with a degree in Arab and Islamic Studies, was reported to be carrying a small copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in his pocket when he and his colleague came under fire near the home of Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a terror suspect killed in a clash with security forces in the area last December.
Rayyes was on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects which has gone down to 18 since it was issued by authorities in December.
Despite the security forces' relentless hunt for terror suspects, presumed Al-Qaeda sympathizers blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Riyadh last year have escalated attacks since April, bombing a security forces building in the capital before expanding their scope of operations to target both Westerners and oil-related facilities in various parts of the vast kingdom.
Last weekend, four Westerners -- an American, a Briton, an Italian and a Swede -- were among the 22 people killed in the Al-Khobar carnage.
On Wednesday, one American serviceman was slightly injured when shots were fired at two vehicles carrying two US military personnel who help train the Saudi National Guard as they drove along a highway outside the Saudi capital, according to the US embassy in Riyadh.
Statements attributed to Al-Qaeda and affiliates, sent by e-mail or posted on Islamist Web sites, have claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.
On Friday, a statement attributed to Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who is alleged to be Al-Qaeda's chief in Saudi Arabia and tops the most-wanted list, hailed the recent spike in oil prices that was partly caused by the attacks in the oil-rich kingdom and took pride in the killing of "all infidel hostages" during the Al-Khobar carnage.
Three of the Al-Khobar killers escaped, while a fourth was wounded and captured, according to Saudi authorities.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS