Hostages Released After Standoff in Saudi Arabia
May 30, 2004
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Filed at 7:00 a.m. ET 

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi forces freed dozens of
American and other foreign hostages Sunday after a shooting
rampage turned into a daylong standoff with Islamic
militants at an expatriate resort. A Saudi security
official said the lead attacker was in custody and two
other suspects were being arrested. 

Saudi officials would not comment on the condition of the
hostages. However, a diplomat in Khobar said officials told
him there were deaths among the hostages and attackers.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he did not know
how many hostages were dead, but was informed that two
gunmen were killed. 

At least 10 others -- including an American -- died in the
attack claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group that began
Saturday morning when gunmen in military-style dress opened
fire on security forces at two oil industry compounds in
Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh. 

The assailants -- believed to number up to seven -- then
fled up the street, taking some 45-60 hostages in a
high-rise housing mainly foreigners. 

Before the release, Saudi security forces had stormed the
walled housing compound and surrounded the attackers on the
sixth floor of a building. A security official said one
attempt during the night to storm the building where the
hostages were being held was abandoned after booby traps
were discovered. 

But just after sunrise, three security forces helicopters
arrived and dropped off commandos. Gunfire, heard
sporadically overnight, rang out again. Within a few hours,
the standoff was over. 

``It has ended. One has been arrested and two are in the
process of being arrested -- they are surrounded,'' said a
Saudi official, who declined to be named. 

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. 

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. 

Reporters were kept back from the compound, but a bus
carrying Saudi troops and other police and military
vehicles could be seen pulling out. As forces withdrew, a
Saudi soldier flashed a V-for-victory sign from the window
of his gun-mounted vehicle. 

In Washington, 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. The U.S.
Embassy in Saudi Arabia reiterated a call to its citizens
to leave the kingdom. 

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said about 10 Saudis and
foreigners were killed in the attack. The Saudi newspaper
Al-Riyadh, quoting security officials, put the number dead
at 16, including seven Saudi security agents. An American
man, a British oil executive, a 10-year-old Egyptian boy,
an Italian cook and three Filipinos were among those
confirmed killed. A Swedish citizen and Saudi guards were
also reportedly among the dead. 

On Sunday, the British Foreign Office confirmed that oil
executive Michael Hamilton died during the shooting and the
Italian Foreign Ministry said that Italian cook Antonio
Amato died. 

A statement posted on several Islamic Web sites claimed the
attack in the name of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigade and
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. 

One Saudi official security official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said the method of the attack was
``definitely inspired by al-Qaida.'' 

``The terrorists' goal is to disrupt the Saudi economy and
destabilize our country. But they will not succeed,'' Saudi
ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan said in a statement
released in Washington. ``With every desperate act of
violence, our effort and resolve to destroy the terrorists
only grows.'' 

The Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya reported the Saudi
oil minister met with oil executives to assure them that
the attack would not affect oil supplies. He planned to
meet ambassadors on Sunday for the same purpose, the
station said without attribution. 

Michael Rothman, chief energy strategist at Merrill Lynch
in New York, said there might be ``a limited psychological
reaction'' in oil markets but that the Khobar attack would
not affect supply. 

The Arab News, quoting witnesses, said the attackers
dragged the body of an unidentified victim behind their car
along a highway. Gunmen who attacked an oil contractor's
office in western Saudi Arabia earlier this month dragged
the body of an American victim from the bumper of their
car. 

According to residents and employees of the Oasis
Residential Resorts, where the hostage-taking occurred, 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.'' 

The Oasis compound is upscale expatriate housing that
includes neighborhood necessities -- shops, restaurants,
playgrounds, fitness centers -- in addition to a hotel and
leisurely extras such as a grassy beach in a private Gulf
cove and an ice-skating rink, according to the compound's
Web site. 

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

The Egyptian boy who was killed was the son of an Apicorp
employee, said Mahmoud Ouf, an Egyptian consular officer in
Riyadh. Apicorp, in a brief statement published in the
Saudi newspaper Al-Jazirah on Sunday, said three of its
employees were among the dead. Apicorp is the investment
arm of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Countries. 

Offices at the Petroleum Center 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. All of those employees were safe, said
Shell spokesman Simon Buerk and a Saudi oil industry
official, Yahya Shinawi, though it wasn't clear whether
other companies had accounted for all their employees. 

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers
to run its oil industry and other sectors. The kingdom
produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day. 

Saudi Arabia launched a high-profile crackdown on
terrorists after attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in
2003. The most recent attack targeted the offices of
Houston, Texas-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. in the western
city of Yanbu on May 1, killing six Westerners and a Saudi.
Many expatriates left after the Yanbu attack. 

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Saudi-Attacks.html?ex=1086921521&ei=1&en=70f1a3b25d6f9463