BBC Cameraman Killers 'linked to Bin Laden'

The gunmen behind the attack on BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and his cameraman Simon Cumbers in Riyadh were linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, a senior Saudi diplomat has claimed.

Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to Saudi Arabia's UK ambassador, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said the attack on Cumbers and Gardner was carried out by the same group responsible for the deaths of 22 people, including one Briton, in the Saudi city of Khobar recently.

"It is the same fanatical group. They are linked to al-Qaida," Mr Khashoggi told Reuters.

The two BBC journalists were attacked while filming in the Riyadh suburb of Suweidi, which is a known al-Qaida stronghold.

Cumbers was killed instantly and Gardner remains in hospital in a critical condition.

"This was an easy job for these militants because [Cumbers and Gardner] spent some time in the area [of Suweidi]," Mr Khashoggi said.

"I believe it was an opportunist strike. These militants want to send a message that the kingdom is not safe for westerners," he added.

Gardner is in a stable but critical condition in Riyadh's King Faisal Specialist Hospital, guarded by Saudi special forces, as a local police search continues for those responsible for yesterday's attack.

The long-serving BBC correspondent earlier underwent several hours of emergency surgery at the Iman Hospital, close to the scene of the shooting, before being transferred to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital.

Doctors removed two bullets from his abdomen, one from his leg and one from his hand, according to Saudi medical sources.

News agency AFP said this afternoon that he was in a coma but that the bleeding had stopped and he had "improved in the last six hours".

A policeman told AFP that Gardner, a fluent Arabic speaker, had pleaded for his life in Arabic shouting to bystanders to help a fellow Muslim.

The BBC journalists were filming outside the house of an al-Qaida supporter shot last year when they were ambushed from a passing car on Sunday, in what has been described as a "drive-by shooting".