Two foreigners including an American were killed and four wounded in a bomb blast Saturday in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar, officials said yesterday.
In Washington, officials said they saw no immediate link with last month's suicide hijack attacks on US landmarks for which Saudi-born Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect.
But the British embassy said it would advise its nationals to tighten security as a result of the blast.
It was not immediately clear if the blast in Khobar, site of a bomb attack five years ago in which 19 US servicemen died, was politically motivated or part of a string of bombings that rocked the conservative Muslim kingdom last year, which Saudi newspapers linked to a lucrative illegal alcohol trade.
But it strengthened fears among diplomats and officials in the Gulf that any US strike on Afghanistan could have serious repercussions for the region.
A senior police officer told the Saudi Press Agency two people were killed and four injured in the blast that occurred at around 8pm in front of a shop in a busy street in Khobar.
A US embassy official in Riyadh said one American was killed and another wounded. Neither was in the military.
A source close to the police said they could barely identify the second body.
"It seems the person was an Asian, most likely a Pakistani, Indian or Afghan. It is possible this person was holding the explosive," the source said.
A Saudi journalist told Qatar's al-Jazeera television station that witnesses said the explosion "was a suicide attack and the perpetrator was an Asian, most possibly a Pakistani or an Afghan."
In June, Washington charged 14 suspected Muslim militants -- 13 Saudis and one Lebanese -- for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and accused elements of the Iranian government of being behind the attack. Iran has denied involvement.
The Saudi government said last month some suspects in the blast had disappeared.
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