Gunmen kill 10 in Saudi offices

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 30, 2004 | by Donna Abu-Nasr Associated Press

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi security forces took up positions in an expatriate resort today after suspected Islamic militants sprayed gunfire inside two office compounds in the heart of the Saudi oil region Saturday, killing at least 10 people -- including an American - - and then took dozens of hostages nearby.

The Arab News newspaper, quoting witnesses, said the attackers dragged the body of an unidentified victim behind their car.

Saudi forces stormed the walled Oasis Residential Resorts complex and surrounded the attackers, said to be wearing military-style uniforms, on the sixth floor of a high-rise building, a police officer told The Associated Press.

After little activity overnight, three helicopters arrived after sunrise and gunfire broke out again. Television footage showed commandos jumping out of a helicopter onto a rooftop.

Security officials said between 45 and 60 people were being held hostage, mostly Westerners, including Americans.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said an American man who worked for an oil company was confirmed dead but did not identify him or his employer. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said two Americans were wounded.

Casey said the State Department has not upgraded its travel warning but noted that it was already about as tough as it could get. It is still recommending that Americans defer all nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia and that those there consider leaving immediately.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said three Dutch hostages had been released "in coordination with local authorities."

A statement posted on several Islamic Web sites claimed the attack in the name of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigade but was signed the "al- Qaida in the Arab Peninsula." It said the attacks targeted U.S. companies and that a number of "crusaders" had been killed.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, called the attack "a cowardly and despicable act of murder."

"These terrorists have no respect for human life and no regard for the principles of Islam," he said in a written statement.

The attack was the second deadly assault this month against the Saudi oil industry and came amid oil prices driven to new highs partly by fears that the Saudi kingdom -- the world's largest oil producer -- is unable to protect itself from terrorists.

Osama bin Laden, blamed for past terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, has vowed to destabilize the oil industry and undermine the kingdom for its close ties to the United States.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said about 10 Saudis and foreigners were killed in the Khobar attack. The Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, quoting security officials in its Sunday edition, put the number dead at 16, including seven Saudi security agents.

An American man, a 10-year-old Egyptian boy and three Filipinos were among those confirmed killed. British citizens and Saudi guards were also reportedly among the dead.

The attack started Saturday morning in the city of Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh near the Persian Gulf coast, where the suspected militants stormed two oil industry compounds housing offices and employee apartments.

Guards at the compounds said four gunmen wearing military-style dress opened fire and engaged in a shootout with Saudi security forces before fleeing up the street to the Oasis, a vast complex containing apartments and hotels.

Several Saudi newspapers reported Sunday that the attackers threw at least one body from the building where they were holed up and had mutilated some of the bodies of those they killed.

The Arab News said the gunmen dragged a body behind a car, mirroring an attack earlier this month in western Saudi Arabia. Gunmen in that attack had dragged the body of an American victim from the bumper of their car.

Journalists were turned away from the compounds and kept back from the Oasis, where hundreds of Saudi security forces were trying to capture or kill the militants. Saudi forces had fired shots inside the compound, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to Oasis residents and an employee, the militants asked questions when they arrived that indicated they were trying to separate Muslims from non-Muslims. Islamic militants have been criticized in the Arab world for previous attacks in which Saudis and other Arabs were killed.

Lebanon's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Chammat, told The Associated Press that five Lebanese hostages had been released.

One of them, Orora Naoufal, said she cowered in her apartment with her 4-year-old son for five hours after a brief encounter with two of the gunmen, whom she described as clean-shaven and wearing military uniforms.

She told AP by telephone that the gunmen asked her where the "infidels" and foreigners were, and whether she was Muslim or Christian,

"I replied: 'I am Lebanese and there are no foreigners here.' " She said the gunmen told her to "Go convert to Islam, and cover up and go back to your country."

One of the targeted oil industry compounds contains offices and apartments for the Arab Petroleum Investment Corp., or Apicorp, and the other -- the Petroleum Center building -- houses offices of various international firms.

A civilian car had slammed into a sign outside the Apicorp compound, and there was a burned car at the entrance and glass shards on the ground. Witnesses earlier said at least 10 ambulances were outside the Oasis, and that hundreds of policemen had surrounded the complex with helicopters overhead.

In addition to Apicorp, oil industry companies with offices in the compounds include a joint venture among Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Total SA and Saudi Aramco; Lukoil Holdings of Russia; and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec.

The Egyptian boy who was killed was the son of an Apicorp employee, said Mahmoud Ouf, an Egyptian consular officer in Riyadh.

Egypt's Middle East News Agency quoted his father, Samir, as saying his son was on his way to school with other students. "The terrorists opened heavy fire on the car, killing Rami and setting fire to the car," his father said, adding that his daughter ran from the car uninjured.

Employees from the other companies were safe, Shell spokesman Simon Buerk and a Saudi oil industry official, Yahya Shinawi, told AP by telephone.