Saudi Arabia Friday beheaded four nationals found guilty of bombing a U.S.-run military training center in Riyadh last November, killing five Americans and two Indians.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement reported by the official Saudi Press Agency and state-run television that the four were executed in the capital, Riyadh.Conservative Saudi Arabia is home to two of Islam's holiest shrines and implements strict Sharia Islamic law, which stipulates public execution by the sword for those found guilty of murder, rape, drug smuggling and other major crimes.
The four confessed to the crime on Saudi television in April, shortly after Interior Minister Prince Nayef, a brother of King Fahd, announced their arrest.
SPA said the four also gave handwritten confessions and were found guilty of planting the Nov. 13 bomb at the U.S.-run Saudi National Guard military training center. Some 60 people were also wounded in the blast.
"We ask God to safeguard our country . . . and guide the Muslim youth and all the nation to see what their enemies plot against them," said the statement.
It said the clergy-headed courts considered their act "the most repulsive of crimes."
It named the four as Abdul-Aziz bin Fahd bin Nasser al-Muathim, Khaled bin Ahmad bin Ibrahim al-Said, Riyad bin Suleiman bin Ishaq al-Hajeri and Mosleh bin Ali bin Aedh al-Shamarani.
Saudi Arabia was criticized last year over a sharp rise in the number of beheadings, but the kingdom repeatedly defended its laws. According to an unofficial count, beheadings reached about 192 in the first 10 months of 1995.
Beheadings resumed in March and, excluding Friday's executions, two people have been beheaded since.