Bombs rock Chechnya and Saudi Arabia

The last 48 hours has witnessed massive explosions in Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.

 

Moscow reports that a bomb attack on a building housing its intelligence and security has caused the death of over sixty people. While no group has taken responsibility, the Russian foreign ministry has linked the attacks in Saudi Arabia and Chechnya as “one link in the same chain”.

 

In the capital of the Saudi monarchy, Riyadh, a series of bombs targeted a compound which housed military and intelligence agents. These attacks on the eve of Colin Powell’s arrival in Riyadh have demonstrated the extent of discontentment amongst the people with the presence of American military bases and troops in Saudi Arabia.

 

The Bush administration which is blinded by its fanatical commitment to Israeli security and the plunder of Palestine by the Zionists has been given a grim reminder that its invasion of Iraq has unleashed a momentum that cannot be stopped.

 

This momentum to rid foreign occupying forces from all parts of the Arabian Peninsula poses serious challenges to US hegemony. Both Russia and America will have to come to terms with the fact that just as the Chechens are determined to intensify their struggle for independence, so too are the Palestinians, supported by fellow Arabs.

 

In the ensuing flames caused by these explosions if Colin Powell would put on his night goggles he would see the failure of the so-called road map. Arab nationals in most of the Gulf Sheikhdoms who are denied right to free expression and socio-political freedoms as a direct result of US-led pressure on their respective Sheiks, Kings and Emirs will increasingly resort to armed struggle against legitimate military targets such as the American bases in Riyadh.

 

Whilst reports are sketchy about the number of casualties and their identities and military ranks, what is certain is that what is passed off as ‘residential’ compounds are in fact US military installations.

(Mr. Iqbal Jasarat is Chairman of the Media Review Network, which is an advocacy group based in Pretoria, South Africa.)