Riyadh compound bombings: what Wikipedia removed
Two 2003 al-Qaeda bombings of housing compounds in Riyadh killed 39 people and wounded over 160, most of them Westerners, as part of a campaign against Westernization in Saudi Arabia. Through 2005 the opening quoted Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who condemned the attackers as “monsters” and vowed to destroy the terrorist group that ordered them. Today the opening carries neither the quote nor the word terror, though terror survives 23 times in the body. A reader today learns the bombings are “attributed to Islamic extremists” and not that a head of state branded the perpetrators a terrorist group and vowed to destroy it.
The word “terror” appeared 7 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 23. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| islamist | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| jihad | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The statement that these bombings were the first of several attacks attributed to al-Qaeda, framing them as part of a campaign, is gone from the article entirely.
- The US State Department’s advance warning that terrorists were in the final stages of planning the attacks is gone from the article entirely.
- Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah’s condemnation of the attackers as monsters and his vow to destroy the terrorist group that ordered them is gone from the article entirely.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16290763):
The Riyadh Compound Bombings took place on May 12 , 2003 , in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia . These deadly attacks, attributed to al-Qaeda , were the first of several “spectacular attacks” carried out by that group in 2003 , and the deadliest attack on Americans that year. File:Riyadhbomb.jpg One of the bombed compounds. Early in May , the US State Department warned that terrorists were in the final stages of planning terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government also warned of this, and issued an alert for 19 men believed to be planning attacks. Late on May 12 , while much of Riyadh was asleep, three vehicles: a car, a pickup, and an SUV , drove through the streets of Riyadh. Their target…
2025 (revision 1290729468):
2003 suicide bombings of residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by al-Qaeda Two major bombings took place in residential compounds in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia on 12 May 2003, 39 people were killed, and over 160 wounded (mostly Westerners) when bombs went off at three compounds in Riyadh—Dorrat Al Jadawel, Al Hamra Oasis Village, and the Vinnell Corporation Compound. On 8 November, a bomb was detonated outside the Al-Mohaya housing compound west of Riyadh, killing at least 17 people and wounding 122, mostly Arab foreigners. The bombings have been attributed to Islamic extremists as part of a campaign against Westerners and Westernization in Saudi Arabia. They are thought to have been spar…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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