• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gunmen Kill 6 at Saudi Oil Offices

Posted on: Saturday, 29 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Gunmen opened fire Saturday on compounds housing offices of oil companies in the eastern city of Khobar, apparently killing at least six people - including a 10-year-old boy - and then taking hostages at a residential compound to use as human shields.

At least three Westerners were believed to be among the dead in the second deadly attack on oil industry targets in the kingdom this month.

Witnesses, including guards for other area compounds, spoke of four gunmen in military-style dress attacking two oil company offices, then engaging Saudi security forces in a shootout at a residential compound in Khobar, where they took hostages. A Western diplomat confirmed that a total of three compounds in Khobar, 250 miles northeast of the capital, Riyadh, were attacked.

Mahmoud Ouf, an Egyptian consular officer in Riyadh, said Rami Samir Al-Goneimi, an Egyptian 10-year-old, was killed in one of the compounds. His father worked for Apicorp, the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation, Ouf said.

Other witnesses said they saw three men with Western features lying on the ground covered with newspapers. Those bodies were taken away in ambulances, they said.

Nationalities of the foreigners were not known, but the British Foreign Office in London said British officials were en route to Khobar from Riyadh to check into rumors a British national was killed.

Two security guards were believed to be dead, according to the Western diplomat, who said there were three separate shooting attacks. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity.

The gunmen - whose number was not clear, though some people in Khobar said they saw four - took refuge in a compound housing Arabs and Westerners after a shootout with security forces, witnesses said.

At least 10 ambulances were seen outside the Oasis compound, an upscale residential complex owned by a Saudi businessman, one witness said. He said he was told by a policeman that gunmen were apparently holding hostages.

Hundreds of policemen surrounded the compound, and helicopters hovered overhead, witnesses said.

Lebanon's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Chammat, told The Associated Press that five Lebanese hostages had been released Saturday from the Oasis compound - a father, mother and their son as well as another Lebanese woman and her son.

"The Saudi security forces have managed to free all the Lebanese," Chammat told The Associated Press by telephone from Jiddah. He said he did not know if other nationals were still being held hostages.

"The gunmen barged into the homes of the Lebanese at Oasis compound and took them hostage, the gunmen began by attacking Apicorp then they moved to the petroleum company, they were being pursued by Saudi police, so they went into the compound and took hostages," Chammat said.

It wasn't possible to immediately verify the number of deaths in the rampage.

Hours after the attacks began, Saudi Interior Ministry officials were not responding to telephone calls seeking comment and no official statements had been put out about the situation. State-run Saudi TV was running a soap opera.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh would not say whether any Americans were believed to have been caught up in the latest attack in the kingdom. "We have received reports of an incident, and we are investigating it," an embassy official in Riyadh said on condition of anonymity without elaborating.

Witnesses, all of whom spoke on condition they not be identified including the guards, said the four men in military-style uniforms who apparently carried out the attack used a small car and were accompanied by another sports utility vehicle.

Saudi Arabia has launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists following attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003. The government says it has foiled dozens of terror attacks in the kingdom. Most of the attacks were blamed on al-Qaida.

The most recent terror attack in Saudi Arabia targeted the offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. in the western city of Yanbu on May 1, killing six Westerners and a Saudi.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers to run its oil industry and other sectors. Many decided to leave, at least temporarily, after the Yanbu attack. Then, U.S. Ambassador James C. Oberwetter advised Americans to leave the country - a move that was criticized by Saudi officials.

Fears of whether Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, can protect its oil industry from terrorists were partly blamed for recent oil price spikes to new highs.

In April, attackers bombed a security building in Riyadh, killing five people and injuring 148 more.

A week ago, a German who worked as a chef for Saudi Arabia's national airline was shot and killed by unknown assailants. Authorities are investigating whether the attack was linked to terrorism.

In 1996 in Dharan, an eastern city just outside Khobar, a truck bombing killed 19 American military personnel at the Khobar Towers barracks.

More News in this Category