In RIYADH story "Mecca cleric slams Riyadh bombers, likens to Israel" please read in second paragraph ... Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid ... instead of ... Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis ... (corrects identity of cleric and makes conform throughout).

A corrected version follows.

RIYADH, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A senior Saudi cleric in Mecca launched a strong condemnation on Friday of the suspected al Qaeda bombers who struck the kingdom this week by comparing their actions to Israeli "terrorism" against the Palestinians.

Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, a preacher at Mecca's Grand Mosque, told worshippers before Friday prayers that those who killed at least 18 people, mostly expatriate Arabs, at a housing complex in Riyadh were seeking to sow strife among Muslims.

"Is the terrorism of Israel and the terrorism of those (militants) linked?" Humaid, who heads the kingdom's consultative Shura Council, asked in an address broadcast live on state television. "Is the purpose to kill more Arabs and Muslims and create more violence and instability?"

"It is only inevitable to draw the comparison with the women and children who are being killed in Palestine and the homes that are being razed to the women and children who were killed in Riyadh while they were safe inside their homes."

The comparison of the militants to the Jewish state, widely reviled in the Arab world, underlined the strength of recent rhetoric from the Saudi establishment against al Qaeda following a series of militant attacks in the kingdom and criticism from Riyadh's U.S. allies that it was not cracking down hard enough.

Many of the casualties in Riyadh were women and children and the attack shocked Muslims inside and outside the kingdom as it occurred during Islam's holiest month, Ramadan.

Humaid urged everyone in Saudi Arabia -- including security forces and media -- to combat terror and radical ideology.

The kingdom, birthplace of Islam and of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has come under intense pressure from the United States since the September 11 attacks two years ago to alter its religious and educational establishments, which some accuse of fomenting extremism and hatred towards non-Muslims.

Fifteen of the 19 suicide plane hijackers involved in the attacks on Washington and New York were Saudis.