- RIYADH (AFP) -- Several
people, including three Americans and other Westerners, one Saudi security
man and three suspected terrorists, were killed in a series of attacks
apparently targeting Westerners in the Saudi Red Sea port town of Yanbu,
Western and Saudi sources revealed.
-
- The Saudi ambassador in London said the British, American,
Australian and Saudi nationals were killed in a "horrific attack,"
which came close on the heels of a car bombing that killed five people
and wounded 145 in the capital Riyadh.
-
- At least three American engineers working for an oil
refining company in Yanbu were among the fatalities, company officials
said Saturday.
-
- The three engineers were working for Lummus, a subsidiary
of Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ABB, a spokesman for ABB said in Switzerland.
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- "At least three Americans working for the company
were killed," spokesman Bjorn Eglund said, adding that company officials
based in Riyadh were traveling to Yanbu, 350 kilometers (220 miles) northwest
of the Saudi capital.
-
- A US embassy spokesperson in Riyadh could confirm only
two Americans killed at the company offices, saying a third had been hospitalized.
-
- A State Department spokeswoman in Washington gave the
same account.
-
- "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," ambassador Turki Al Faisal said in a statement in London.
-
- "Instead, it will strengthen our long-standing resolve
to eradicate terrorist activity and to combat this evil wherever we find
it, in every corner of the kingdom."
-
- Saturday's attacks come despite a massive crackdown on
suspected Islamist extremists blamed for a wave of bombings which targeted
residential compounds in Riyadh in May and November 2003, killing 52 people,
and a security forces building in the capital on April 21.
-
- Residents of Yanbu also said at least one Briton was
among the dead, in addition to the three Americans and a Saudi security
man. But British officials in London and diplomats in Saudi Arabia could
not immediately confirm this.
-
- "We're aware that two British citizens are involved
but we can't confirm any specific details yet because at the moment we've
got a team going up to Yanbu to actually go to the scene. So at the moment
we can't absolutely confirm anything," a Foreign Office spokeswoman
said in London.
-
- According to residents' accounts, gunmen commandeered
a security forces car early Saturday, killing the security man driving
it and sped into a street where they opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant
and company offices at street level before heading to a hotel.
-
- Some residents said they also opened fire at the hotel,
killing one American, but this could not be confirmed.
-
- The gunmen then headed to the offices of Lummus, where
they shot at "every Western-looking individual," one resident
said.
-
- The gunmen tried to attack the offices of the Royal Commission
of Jubail and Yanbu but clashed with security forces, who killed three
and wounded a fourth, according to the residents.
-
- Citing an interior ministry source, Saudi official media
said four attackers opened fire indiscriminately at the office of a Saudi
contractor and were pursued by security forces after they commandeered
citizens' cars.
-
- Three of the attackers were killed and a fourth was wounded
and arrested, the source said, adding that an undetermined number of "citizens
and (foreign) residents" had been killed or wounded.
-
- A Western source said attackers had also thrown a pipe
bomb at the International School in Yanbu, causing minor damage and slightly
injuring an employee.
-
- Top Saudi officials have repeatedly pledged to wipe out
militants supporting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s Al-Qaeda movement
since the suicide bombings began a year ago.
-
- Five militants, including four on a most-wanted list,
were killed last week in gunbattles with security forces in the Red Sea
city of Jeddah.
-
- Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said
earlier this week security forces were still hunting down a group of suspected
terrorists in Al-Ammariya region, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest
of Riyadh.
-
- The Al-Riyadh daily reported Saturday that security forces
were using radar and infrared cameras in their search efforts.
-
- The US State Department, in its annual "Patterns
of Global Terrorism" report released Thursday, singled out Saudi Arabia
for exceptional work against suspected terrorist networks after the deadly
Riyadh suicide attacks.
-
- Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism from US lawmakers
for its alleged unwillingness to deal with extremism. Fifteen of the 19
hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United
States were Saudis.
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- But the report lauded Saudi actions taken since then.
-
- "I would cite Saudi Arabia as an excellent example
of a nation increasingly focusing its political will to fight terrorism,"
State Department counterterrorism coordinator Cofer Black said in the report.
-
- "Saudi Arabia has launched an aggressive, comprehensive
and unprecedented campaign to hunt down terrorists, uncover their plots
and cut off their sources of funding," he said.
-
- "I have been greatly impressed with the strides
they have made and their seriousness of purpose."
-
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of Agence France Presse.
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