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U.S. Military Attacked in Saudi Capital

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Gunmen attacked American military personnel in the capital Riyadh on Wednesday, slightly injuring the driver, while police killed two militants in an unrelated incident in the kingdom's west.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified one of the dead as Abdul Rahman Mohammed Yazji, No. 25 on a list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted militants. The other man could not be immediately identified.

The attack on the Americans came just days after gunmen opened fire and took several hostages in a raid on a compound in the eastern oil city of Khobar. Twenty-two people, mostly foreigners working in the oil industry, were killed in that raid, which ended after commandos raided the compound. One gunman was wounded and arrested; three others escaped.

A brief U.S. Embassy statement said shots were fired Wednesday morning on two vehicles carrying U.S. military personnel near a Saudi National Guard compound where a U.S. training unit is based.

The convoy returned immediately to the compound. The statement said a driver, whose nationality was not given, was slightly injured. It was not clear if the driver was shot.

"Saudi Arabian authorities are investigating the incident," the statement said.

Saudi security officials had said earlier that no one was injured in the shooting. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

The residential compound at one time housed U.S. military servicemen, but is now home to Saudis, other Arab expatriates and some Westerners, a Saudi security official said on condition of anonymity.

Calls to the compound switchboard reached an automatic answering service that identifies is as an installation of "OPM SANG" - Office of the Program Manager, Saudi Arabian National Guard. An operator who picked up later refused comment.

In Taif, 465 miles southwest of Riyadh and just south of the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi security official said the two militants opened fire from their car at a security checkpoint Tuesday evening. One of the two men was disguised as a woman, he said.

Police said the two were killed Wednesday after an overnight standoff, though what happened between the shootings and their deaths was not clear. It was not known if there were any police casualties.

Police found weapons and ammunition, plus a number of cellular phones in the car the men were using, the official added.

Saudi authorities began a high-profile crackdown on Islamic militants after a May 2003 attack on a Riyadh housing compound killed 35 people, including nine suicide bombers. Since then, there have been numerous shootouts with militants on Saudi streets.

In Washington Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reiterated his government's advice that Americans leave Saudi Arabia.

Boucher said Americans were being urged to leave even though "it's clear that Saudi security forces are very aggressively pursuing the terrorists who are operating in their homeland. They have been successful in preventing several attacks. And, in many cases, that cost Saudi lives as well."

Boucher said the United States and Saudi Arabia were working closely together against terrorism.

Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has vowed to destabilize the Saudi government, which the Saudi-born extremist views as insufficiently Islamic and which he derides for its close relationship with the United States. Saudi officials have linked militant violence in the kingdom to al-Qaida or to other groups believed inspired by bin Laden.

The Khobar attack sparked increases in already high global oil prices, amid fears that the Saudi government, which controls the world's largest proven crude reserves, cannot protect its vital oil installations.

In Lebanon Wednesday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said his country was taking adequate steps to safeguard its most important facilities.

"The illusion that terrorism threatens petroleum facilities in the world is not true. I assure you that installations in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia are secure because they are under intensive protection to prevent such acts," he said.

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