Arrests in deadly Riyadh bombing
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A child's drawing sits amidst the debris of a bomb-damaged home in Riyadh.
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CNN's David Ensor reports on the possibility that the latest terror attack could backfire on al Qaeda.
CNN's Mimi Mees reports that analysts say the Saudi government is now targeted by an Islamist movement it once supported.
Saudi security officials say they expect another terrorist attack.
The U.S. is sending a mixed message to Saudi Arabia. CNN's Chris Plante reports
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Suspects have been arrested in connection with the weekend bombing of a housing compound that killed 17 people in the capital Riyadh, a Saudi government spokesman has told CNN.
The spokesman did not say when the arrests were made or release any further details. The suspects were being interrogated.
Saudi officials said they believed al Qaeda attackers behind Saturday's deadly car bombing mistakenly targeted a facility they thought was housing Americans. The residents were mostly Arabs.
The sources said Saudi authorities learned the information while questioning one of the suspects. It was unclear whether the suspect was arrested at the same time as the others, or was taken into custody separately.
Saturday's car bombing struck a mostly Arab neighborhood near Riyadh's diplomatic quarter, killing at least 17 people and wounding 122 others.
The victims included Saudis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Palestinians, Indians, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Indonesians, Filipinos, Turks, Sri Lankans, and Romanians.
It was unclear why the attackers believed they were striking at Americans.
Sources have said the terrorists, dressed in security uniforms and driving a stolen jeep, penetrated security in the area before a gunfight ensued.
The jeep blew up in the attack and police suspect a second vehicle was used, although that is still under investigation.
The compound was owned by the U.S. aerospace company Boeing four years ago, but one U.S. official told CNN he did not think that was the reason for the bombing.
Vow to crush militants
On Monday, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd pledged to his Cabinet to strike back at militants with an "iron fist" in the wake of the bombing.
Government sources told CNN that during the meeting the king also said he wanted to make sure it was safe for people to travel to Mecca during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mecca, the birthplace of Mohammad, is Islam's holiest city, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel there during Ramadan.
Fahd's vow to crack down on the militants came among further official warnings that more attacks could come at any time. Sources said they expect at least one more attack, if not more.
In response to those warnings, Saudi security officials have tightened security at diplomatic compounds and other sensitive sites, and have sent 4,600 troops to Mecca. (New attack warning)
"We're concerned," Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, told CNN about the likelihood of other attacks.
"What we are looking at is a group of people that are committed to overthrow the Saudi state, to create an Afghan-type Taliban rule in Saudi Arabia. We're not going to have them succeed."
'Desperate'
Al-Jubeir said that while the al Qaeda connection was not 100 percent confirmed, the bombing had the earmarks of al Qaeda, which he called a "desperate" group.
"They have no agenda. Their agenda is to kill people," he said. "These are desperate acts, for a desperate group."
U.S. officials Monday said there was intelligence suggesting al Qaeda was planning more attacks in Saudi Arabia.
"This is not the end," a senior State Department official said. "There are still people at large who want to hurt us, and we think there may be more."
The official said such attacks "could be in the operational phase."
Al-Jubeir said Saudi authorities have rounded up hundreds of terrorists since triple car bombings killed 23 people, plus the 12 bombers, at three complexes housing Westerners in Riyadh in May.
He also said Saudi Arabia had fired 2,000 imams for spreading hate.
"It is a struggle that is going to be a long-term struggle, but at the end we will succeed," he said.
Speaking at the State Department in Washington spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. and Saudi authorities have been working together to round up terrorists, but Saturday's attack underscored the need to do more.
"There is always more we could be doing, until we prevent attacks like this. And that has to be our primary concern now: What more can we do in terms of our assets, our support, and our cooperation with the Saudi government," Boucher said.
As far as who was behind the attack, he said, "It looks like al Qaeda. It smells like al Qaeda. It has all the earmarks of al Qaeda."
One U.S. official said the attack "could backfire" on al Qaeda by turning many more Arabs against it. The official noted that in the period since the May attacks in Riyadh, many U.S. troops who were based in Saudi Arabia have left.
"That makes it all the more clear that their goal is to overthrow the Saudi monarchy," he said.
-- CNN Correspondents Nic Robertson and David Ensor; producers Nada el-Housseini and Elise Labotte; and CNN's Caroline Faraj and Sandy Petrykowski contributed to this report.
