Middle East: There was widespread condemnation of the Riyadh bombing yesterday throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Because almost all the victims of the attack were Arab professionals and their families, officials and editorial writers castigated the deed as a crime not only against fellow Arabs and Muslims but also against Islam itself.
The Arab League Secretary General, Mr Amr Mousa, denounced what he termed "the criminal and terrorist actions which have no purpose except threatening stability, planning evil and terrorising and killing civilians without heeding any religion or creed or caring about the sanctity of the month of Ramadan".
President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon deplored "in the strongest terms attacks like these which targeted our sister country Saudi Arabia." Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said: "This is the world of the enemies of Islam and humanity."
The Beirut Daily Star observed, "... events [in the region] are being driven by individuals and groups who view the slaughter of civilians as a legitimate form of political expression".
"Despite the high profile of the atrocity," the paper continued, "no one knows what they want or even who they are. These groups have no platform to sell, no list of complaints that can be discussed by rational people."
Lebanon takes such a strong stand because the majority of the residents of the targeted compound are Lebanese. At least four were killed.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmed Maher, denounced the attack and said he was "convinced that such acts do not represent the hospitable Saudi people."
Egypt also lost four of its citizens in the blast. King Muhammad VI of Morocco said his people rejected "these terrorist criminal acts contrary to moral and human principles and to the values of Islam which prohibit all forms of aggression."
The Kuwaiti government condemned "all forms of terrorism and urges the international community to condemn such ugly criminal acts and to fight them with all means and resources."
The President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, sent a message to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah promising the federation's support against the challenge posed by terrorism and expressed his country's "profound grief".
The Gulf Today, a UAE newspaper, said that the Gulf Cooperation Council "is determined to counter the phenomenon of terrorism".
The Syrian President, Dr Bashar al-Assad, also telephoned Crown Prince Abdullah, a friend, to express his condolences.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Riyadh warned that the road the terrorists "are taking will not lead to any good but to more violence, to more killings as well as to the ruin of the image of Islam."
Non-Arab Iran's Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, said: "Killing innocent people, including women and children, especially during the Holy Month of Ramadan, is immoral, inhuman and against religious beliefs."
Mr Masood Khan, the Pakistani government spokesman, said the bombing showed that "no country in the world is safe form the dark designs of terrorists."