Six Westerners Killed in Saudi Oil Office

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Attackers sprayed gunfire inside an oil contractor’s office Saturday, killing six westerners – including two Americans – and wounding 25 people before leading police on a bloody chase with the body of one victim tied to their car.

Police pursued the attackers through the industrial city of Yanbu and fought them in a shootout outside the Holiday Inn, then finally overpowered them on a downtown street, witnesses said.

Officials said three attackers were killed at the scene, and the fourth died later from his wounds. A member of the Saudi national guard also died, European diplomats said.

There was no word on the motivation behind the attack, but U.S. officials had warned in recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. ally. A Saudi diplomat called the attack an “indiscriminate evil rampage.”

The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi Arabia was in May 2003, when eight Americans were among 34 people killed in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in the capital, Riyadh. That attack and a November assault on a housing compound that killed 17 people were blamed on the al-Qaida terror network.

Intelligence has in the past suggested al-Qaida wanted to strike at Saudi oil interests. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic credentials.

“The kingdom will eliminate terrorism no matter how long it takes,” Crown Prince Abdullah said in comments broadcast Saturday night on Saudi television.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the gunmen walked into the offices of a Saudi oil contractor Saturday morning and “randomly shot at Saudi and foreign employees” in Yanbu, 550 miles west of Riyadh. The contractor, ABB-Lummus, said the attack occurred at about 6:30 a.m.

The offices are across the street from a petrochemicals plant co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC.

Saudi TV footage showed one victim – a man wearing what appeared to be a uniform – lying in the bloody front seat of a sport utility vehicle, his leg dangling out an open door with a rifle nearby and several bullets on the floor.

The attackers tied the body of one of the victims to the back of a commandeered car before fleeing, according to one witness who, like all residents reached in Yanbu, spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Another witness said the gunmen engaged police in a shootout outside the Holiday Inn hotel, but nobody was hurt. They fled, and opened fire again in downtown Yanbu.

“Security forces were able to kill three of them and injure and capture the fourth,” the Interior Ministry said. A security official later said the fourth attacker died of his wounds.

In another, near-simultaneous attack in the city, a pipe bomb was thrown over a wall of Yanbu International School, causing minor damage and slightly injuring the school’s 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, the U.S. Embassy’s website said.

After the attacks, police moved in force to secure Yanbu’s streets, with checkpoints throughout the city, one resident said. He said some of the Westerners involved in the oil industry in Yanbu were unable to reach their workplaces because of the heavy police presence.

The U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James C. Oberwetter, condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

“The kind of horrific attacks that happened today in Yanbu must be condemned by all those who want to see peace and prosperity in the Middle East,” Oberwetter said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said the attack wouldn’t change Saudi Arabia’s resolve to fight terrorism.

“We will not be discouraged by this brutal incident in which innocent lives were lost – British, American and Australian as well as Saudi Arabian – and many people injured in an indiscriminate evil rampage,” he said in London.

The two Americans killed were engineers for ABB-Lummus, 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.

A European diplomat said a second Australian also was killed in the attack. Australia identified one of the Australians as Anthony Richard Mason, 57, from the state of Western Australia.

European diplomats also said a member of the Saudi national guard was killed.

Abdullah said 25 people were wounded in the attack. Edlund said the wounded included two American ABB-Lummus employees, one of whom sustained critical wounds. Diplomats also said two Canadian citizens and a Saudi police captain were among the wounded.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans.

The May 2003 housing compound attack was seen as a wake-up call to Saudis of the dangers of Islamic militants at home. Bin Laden was born and raised in the kingdom, but expelled in 1994 for agitating against the monarchy.

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 member, warning of “credible indications of terrorist threats” against American targets.

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Associated Press writers Tarek al-Issawi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Niko Price in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.