TEHRAN The British daily Guardian in an article on Tuesday raised a question about the serial attacks against the British nationals in Saudi Arabia: "Why target the British rather than the 40,000-strong American community?"

Observers believe that a number of Western businessmen are involved with smuggling of alcohol and drugs into the Muslim kingdom and the reason behind the attacks is to pull away the rival smugglers.

Given the strict security measures in Saudi Arabia, it is not possible for an ordinary man to carry explosives in Saudi Arabia.

Therefore those behind the attack must have close relationship with certain military sources. That one of the suspects of the bombings is an American national indicates that the explosions are politically motivated.

"The fact that the incidents have been relatively small-scale is no consolation for David Brown, the latest, mutilated victim, or for the relatives of Christopher Rodway who was killed last month. Perhaps eager for political reasons to counter the obvious thought that terrorists are at work, Saudi officials have suggested that personal grudges, bad debts or illegal rackets may be to blame - and they arrested an American after the earlier explosions in Riyadh," the daily Guardian said.

"But the most recent devise, planted over 200 miles away in Al-Kohbar, shattered hopes that the bombings have been halted. The British nationality of the targets apart, there is no proven connection between the attacks. The Foreign Office has warned the 26,000 Britons in Saudi Arabia to be vigilant; and Scotland Yard has dispatched a team of investigators. But no one seems to know why the attacks are happening. And no one admits responsibility.

One possibility is that Mr. Brown was randomly targeted as a symbolic representative of Western influence in strictly Islamic Saudi Arabia. He works for Coca-Cola; other British victims were connected with Boeing and with the U.S. and British-staffed military hospital in Riyadh. Coca-Cola, with other U.S. firms, is currently facing a consumer boycott prompted by U.S. support of Israel. The Saudi government has taken an unusually tough line in support of the Palestinians during the recent fighting. In broad terms, anti-Western feeling in the Arab world is running high. And the continued presence of U.S. and British forces in the kingdom 10 years after the Persian Gulf war is controversial. All or any of this may have incited a handful of fundamentalist radicals to violence. But even if that is so, the question remains: why target the British rather than the 40,000-strong American community?" it added.

"Casting even further afield for answers, some point to the U.S. and British war of attrition with Iraq; to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi renegade millionaire holed up in Afghanistan who has now been linked to recent attacks on a U.S. warship and the British Embassy in Yemen. Whatever the motive, the Saudi authorities must now act swiftly and firmly to stop these outrages and catch the perpetrators," the daily concluded.

What is clear is that Britain has been targeted. What is not clear at this stage is the identity of the bombers. What can be guessed is that the U.S. might be behind the bombings because an American national has been arrested in relation to the bombings.