September 15, 2003

Saudi jail blaze kills inmates

A fire has swept through Saudi Arabia's biggest prison killing and injuring scores of inmates, prison officials say.

At least 67 prisoners have been killed and another 20 inmates and three guards injured, the director-general of the prison service has said.

The blaze at the Al-Hair prison, in the capital Riyadh broke out around midday (0900 GMT).

Firefighters and rescue workers are said to have "intervened immediately" nonetheless officials say the fire is still burning.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has ordered an inquiry into the cause of the blaze.

It is not known whether the prison housed any of the more than 200 Islamic militants rounded up in recent months as part of a crackdown on supporters of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Rest assured there is a story here.
Those wacky Sauds...they don't dare execute their own Islamist terrorists for fear of the backlash it would create and they don't dare let these guys go to bomb the "Kingdom" again the way they used to.
I imagine that the Saudi people don't think this fire was an "accident."
I suppose being burned alive is more of a deterrant than the threat of a quick beheading, though.
Let's hope that there were no ex-pat Westerners like the Brits SA "pardoned" a few weeks ago...
And of course, if any Al Queda were among the fatalities, we cannot hope to extradite them or get any information from them now.
Which was prolly why the House of Saud got out the matches in the first place.