Perry Cites Possible New Risk in Saudi Arabia

U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia are operating under the threat of imminent terrorist attack, not only from huge car bombs and chemical weapons but also from a possible new threat, powerful mortars that can fire projectiles long distances, Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Saturday.

About 700 school-age children and other family members of U.S. military personnel are being ordered to leave Saudi Arabia to reduce the size of the American military community in Riyadh, the capital.

The threat of mortar attack is one reason 4,000 U.S. Air Force personnel are moving from the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, the target of the June 25 truck bomb that killed 19 people, and moving to a remote desert air base 60 miles south of Riyadh, U.S. military officials said.

U.S. defense officials have grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of terrorists or other military forces hostile to the United States mounting attacks using transportable mortars, U.S. military officials said. American soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina are on guard against mortar attacks, in part because of the widespread use of such weapons there in recent years.

Speaking Saturday to reporters at the Pentagon about his trip last week to Saudi Arabia, Perry said the 3,000- to 5,000-pound truck bomb that destroyed the Dhahran building used military explosives with a military detonator.

He added that the bomb’s sophistication is one reason he stated in an interview with National Public Radio on Friday that he believes investigators will conclude the bombers had “an international connection” in the assault.

But Perry also backed away from other statements he made on the radio program: that the Saudis are close to completing their investigation of the blast and that “possibly” Iran was responsible.

“I don’t know what conclusion the investigators are coming to,” Perry said Saturday. He added that he did not ask the Saudis.