NO person can fail to be shocked and horrified by Sunday's Riyadh housing complex bomb blast that has left at least 17 dead and 120 injured. There can be no justification for the taking of innocent lives, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms those who are responsible for the carnage. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, and we hope that justice for the perpetrators of this outrage is swift and severe.

We would also like to express our concern for the many Bangladeshi expatriates working in Saudi Arabia, especially as the blast appeared to be aimed at foreigners in the kingdom. We hope that the Bangladeshi mission is taking all possible steps to secure the safety of our fellow countrymen.

Who were behind the attack and what they hoped to accomplish through such an atrocity remains unclear. The fact that the devastated housing complex was home mainly to families from other Arab countries and not Westerners makes the motive behind the attack even harder to fathom.

The US is right to feel that terrorism is a scourge that must be opposed and rooted out everywhere in the world. However, the Bush administration's belief that the overthrow of Saddam's admittedly brutal dictatorship in Iraq would lead to greater stability in the region has proved to be dead wrong.

Far from bringing stability to the region, the US-led war has succeeded only in plunging Iraq into chaos and destabilising the entire Middle East. We feel that the bomb blast in Riyadh is just the latest evidence of the increasing volatility in the region that the US-led war has wrought.

While we condemn terrorism in all its forms and do not wish to shift the blame for terrorist outrages away from those who perpetrate them, it remains undeniable that as long as the US continues its occupation of Iraq, the instability in the Middle East will only increase and, as a result, atrocity such as Sunday's bombing will tragically become more and more frequent.