New York, Tuesday, May 1, 2004 Gunmen
Kill Six at Saudi Oil Facility By Adnan Malik,
Associated Press Writer YANBU, Saudi Arabia - Suspected
militants sprayed gunfire inside an oil
contractor's Saudi office Saturday, killing at
least six people -- including two Americans and
three other Westerners -- and wounding dozens.
Police killed four gunmen in a shootout after a car
chase in which the attackers reportedly dragged the
naked body of one victim behind their getaway car.
One of the attackers killed was reported to be
on the Saudi kingdom's list of most-wanted
terrorists, many of them suspects in last year's
suicide attacks on foreign housing compounds in the
capital, Riyadh. The two attacks were blamed on
al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terror network. Three of the gunmen worked at the office of
ABB-Lummus in the industrial city of Yanbu, 220
miles north of the Red Sea city of Jiddah. Many
foreigners are employed by oil refineries and
petrochemical plants in the region. The three gunmen used their key cards to enter
the building and sneak another attacker through an
emergency gate, according to an Interior Ministry
source quoted by the official Saudi Press
Agency. Witnesses told The Associated Press that police
engaged in a shootout with the gunmen outside a
Holiday Inn before overpowering them on a downtown
street. A statement from the Interior Ministry said
police killed three attackers and wounded and
captured a fourth, who died later. "Using different arms, they started firing at
the offices of the company's personnel before
leaving the scene in a hurry to begin attacking a
residential compound," the agency quoted the source
as saying, giving no further details. The Interior Ministry statement said the gunmen
walked into the offices and "randomly shot at Saudi
and foreign employees." The offices are across the
street from a petrochemicals plant co-owned by
Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC. After the attacks, police moved in to secure
Yanbu's streets with checkpoints throughout the
city, one resident said. There was no word on the motivation behind
Saturday's shootings, but U.S. officials warned in
recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners
in Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. ally. Intelligence has suggested al-Qaida wanted to
strike at Saudi oil interests, and bin Laden -- a
Saudi exile -- has called for the overthrow of the
Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic
credentials. After the attacks, police moved in to secure
Yanbu's streets with checkpoints throughout the
city, one resident said. The two Americans killed were engineers for
ABB-Lummus, Houston-based the energy arm of
multinational engineering company ABB. A British
ABB employee, a British contractor and an
Australian employee were also killed, spokesman
Bjorn Edlund said from Zurich, Switzerland. In Sydney, the government identified the
Australian as Anthony Richard Mason, 57. A
European diplomat told AP that a second Australian
also died, but it was not immediately possible to
confirm that. There were conflicting reports on the number of
wounded, ranging from 25 to 50, and of the number
of Saudi victims. The Saudi Press Agency report
said a Saudi National Guardsman was killed. The
U.S. Embassy said several Saudi security forces
were "killed and wounded in their fight with the
terrorists," but gave no numbers. The U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James C.
Oberwetter, condemned the attacks and offered
condolences to the families of the victims. "The
United States appreciates everything the Saudi
authorities are doing to fight terrorism, including
here in the kingdom," he said in a statement. The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi
Arabia was in May 2003, when coordinated suicide
bombings at Riyadh housing compounds killed 34
people, including eight Americans. The second
Riyadh suicide assault, in November, killed 17
people. Crown Prince
Abdullah, speaking on Saudi television, said:
"The kingdom will eliminate terrorism no matter how
long it takes." Later, the Saudi Press
Agency quoted Abdullah as telling a gathering of
princes in Jiddah that
"Zionism
is behind terrorist actions in the kingdom. I
can say that I am 95 percent sure of
that." He said Zionism had misled "some of our sons,"
but did not elaborate. Anti-Israeli sentiment runs
high in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Arab
world because of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Saudi TV footage showed one victim lying in the
bloody front seat of a sports utility vehicle, his
leg dangling out an open door with a rifle nearby
and bullets on the floor. He appeared to be wearing
a security officer's uniform. After opening fire in the office, the attackers
tied the body of one victim to the back of a stolen
car before fleeing, according to a witness who,
like all residents reached in Yanbu, spoke on
condition of anonymity. The Web site of the English-language Saudi
Gazette reported that the attackers stripped
the man naked before tying him to the getaway car
and dragging him along a road. The Gazette also showed a photograph of
one attacker lying in a pool of blood in the middle
of a road wearing only black trousers and
surrounded by a crowd of Saudi bystanders in white
robes. Mohamed Ghamdi, the Gazette's editor,
told AP that the dead man was Abdullah Saud
Abu-Nayan al-Sobaie, No. 10 on a list of the
kingdom's 26 most-wanted terrorists. The AP was not
immediately able to confirm if al-Sobaie was among
those killed. In another, near-simultaneous attack in the city
on Saturday, a pipe bomb was thrown over a wall of
the Yanbu International School, causing minor
damage and slightly injuring a custodian, according
to the Overseas Security Advisory Council, which
shares security information between the U.S.
government and the private sector. "Staff and children had already been advised not
to report to school that morning," said a warden's
message posted at the U.S. Embassy's Web site. The Saudi crown prince said 25 people were
wounded in the attack. The ABB spokesman said the
wounded included two American employees. Diplomats
also said two Canadians and a Saudi police captain
were among the wounded. A spokeswoman for ABB-Lummus, Patti
McDonald, said four of the "victims" were based
in Houston, but she did not indicate whether that
meant people killed or wounded. She said the names
of the casualties were being withheld pending
family notification. The Saudi Gazette report, which cited
Interior Ministry sources and witnesses, said about
50 people were wounded. The Saudi Press Agency said
an American, Pakistani and Canadian were injured
along with eight National Guard soldiers and 10
security officers. Saudi Arabia -- the world's biggest oil producer
-- relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers,
including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil
industry and other sectors. The kingdom produces
about 8 million barrels of oil a day, and a
significant disruption could affect markets. In the summer of 2002, Saudi officials arrested
al-Qaida sympathizers who tried to blow up Ras
Tanura -- a major Saudi oil terminal and refinery
-- and its pipelines. Saudi security forces have been hunting Islamic
militants, resulting in frequent deadly clashes in
recent months. Last month, the United States ordered the
departure of nonessential U.S. government employees
and family members from Saudi Arabia and also urged
private citizens to depart. The embassy warned of
"credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at
American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia."
 Associated Press writers
Tarek al-Issawi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and
Niko Price and Paul Garwood in Cairo, Egypt,
contributed to this report. 
Join dots to get
real picture ... al
Qaeda terrorists "using NZ passports" - two
men in Thailand arrested with fake NZ
passports | New
Zealand arrested two Mossad agents trying to
obtain false New Zealand passports |
A
history of Mossad's overseas bungling
| Why
Mossad might be interested in New Zealand
| Israeli
agent entered NZ on fake Canadian passport |
Links
to video clips now added | Mossad
agents charged with NZ passport offences
photographed (right) reporting to police as part
of bail conditions
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