LAPD 85
05-30-2004, 04:28 PM
Saudi Commandos Free Dozens Held at Resort
Speaker on Tape Claims al-Qaida Is Responsible for Attack
By DONNA ABU-NASR, AP
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (May 30) - Saudi commandos in helicopters stormed an expatriate resort early Sunday to free hostages seized by suspected al-Qaida gunmen in an assault on the kingdom's vital oil industry that killed 22 people - mostly foreigners including one American.
The 25-hour attack started Saturday in the Persian Gulf coast city of Khobar when as many as seven militants went on a shooting rampage at two oil industry office compounds before moving up the street to the upscale Oasis resort and taking hostages.
In an audio tape posted Sunday on Islamic Web sites, a speaker identified as Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, al-Qaida's chief in the Saudi region, said the deadly rampage was part of a campaign to drive ''crusaders'' from ''the land of Islam.'' The speaker also said an American's body was dragged through the streets.
The deadly attack, the second this month against the Saudi oil industry, marked another challenge to efforts in the kingdom to crackdown on Islamic militants.
There also were concerns the attack could drive up oil prices, already at new highs in part because of fears Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer - is unable to protect itself from terrorism. Most of the dead were among the expatriate workers the kingdom relies on to run its oil industry and other sectors.
Besides the American, the victims included a Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African, an Egyptian, two Sri Lankans, three Saudis, three Filipinos and eight Indians, the Interior Ministry said in a statement read on Saudi television. It said 25 people were injured.
The statement said Saudi forces had evacuated 241 people of different nationalities from the Oasis complex. It said the lead militant in the attacks was wounded and captured, but that three militants - one of them wounded - escaped. It also said the captured militant was ''an important target'' for authorities.
In Washington, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy, Nail al-Jubeir, told CNN that one militant also was killed in the standoff with Saudi forces.
''The intent was to cripple the world economy by sending the message that foreigners are not safe inside Saudi Arabia,'' he said, also dismissing the notion that the kingdom cannot protect its people.
''It does not take much to come into a building with a rifle and shoot innocent people,'' he said, comparing the attack to a drive-by shooting. ''Unfortunately it is very difficult to guard against.''
The militants were wearing military-style dress when they attacked the office compounds around 7:30 a.m. Saturday and then fled up the street to the Oasis Residential Resort - an upscale complex with shops, restaurants, a private waterfront and an ice-skating rink.
At the Oasis, the gunmen apparently tried to target Westerners and avoid harming Muslims, according to residents and employees.
At the start of the hostage crisis, Saudi security forces stormed the walled complex and surrounded the attackers on the sixth floor of a high-rise building. Those forces tried to reach the hostages during the night, they said, but found ****y traps.
Just after sunrise, three helicopters dropped Saudi commandos into the compound. Gunfire, heard sporadically overnight, rang out again. Within a few hours, the standoff was over.
In the purported al-Qaida claims, the statement Sunday attributed to al-Moqrin rails against the Saudi government, accusing it of opening the country to Americans and providing ''America with oil at the cheapest prices according to their masters' wish, so that their economy does not collapse.''
The speaker says the struggle with America would be pursued ''in the Arabian peninsula, Afghanistan, in Iraq'' and that the battle with the Saudi government will continue until the ''crusaders are expelled from the land of Islam.''
Statements posted Saturday on 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.
The CIA said it was investigating the claims. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile, has vowed to destabilize Saudi Arabia for its close ties to the United States. His terror network has been blamed for previous attacks in the kingdom.
Several Saudi newspapers reported Sunday that the attackers threw at least one body from the Oasis building were they were holding hostages and mutilated the bodies of some of those killed.
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, the station, giving no attribution.
Michael Rothman, chief energy strategist at Merrill Lynch in New York, said ''a limited psychological reaction'' might occur 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 a car bumper.
At the Oasis, the militants indicated they were trying to separate Muslims from non-Muslims. Lebanon's ambassador said five Lebanese hostages were freed, and Oasis residents and employees said militants asked them if they were Muslim. Militants have been criticized in the Arab world for previous attacks in which Saudis and other Arabs were killed.
Abu Hashem, a 45-year-old Iraqi-American engineer, said four gunmen - lightly bearded Saudi men who looked 18 to 25 years old - asked for his residency papers.
''They said, 'You are American,' and I told them I am an American Muslim. They said, 'We do not kill Muslims,''' They then apologized for breaking into his home.
Abdul Salam al-Hakawati, a 38-year-old Lebanese corporate financial officer, said gunmen rummaging around his family residence said, ''This is a Muslim house'' - apparently seeing framed Quranic verses on the walls.
He said a man in his early 20s, carrying a machine gun and wearing an ammunition belt, told him: ''We only want to hurt Westerners and Americans. Can you tell us where we can find them here?''
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. It was not clear if other companies in the center had accounted for all their employees.
Saudi Arabia launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists after attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003. The most recent terror attack 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. Many expatriates left the kingdom after the Yanbu attack.
05/30/04 13:16 EDT
[/quote]
Speaker on Tape Claims al-Qaida Is Responsible for Attack
By DONNA ABU-NASR, AP
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (May 30) - Saudi commandos in helicopters stormed an expatriate resort early Sunday to free hostages seized by suspected al-Qaida gunmen in an assault on the kingdom's vital oil industry that killed 22 people - mostly foreigners including one American.
The 25-hour attack started Saturday in the Persian Gulf coast city of Khobar when as many as seven militants went on a shooting rampage at two oil industry office compounds before moving up the street to the upscale Oasis resort and taking hostages.
In an audio tape posted Sunday on Islamic Web sites, a speaker identified as Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, al-Qaida's chief in the Saudi region, said the deadly rampage was part of a campaign to drive ''crusaders'' from ''the land of Islam.'' The speaker also said an American's body was dragged through the streets.
The deadly attack, the second this month against the Saudi oil industry, marked another challenge to efforts in the kingdom to crackdown on Islamic militants.
There also were concerns the attack could drive up oil prices, already at new highs in part because of fears Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer - is unable to protect itself from terrorism. Most of the dead were among the expatriate workers the kingdom relies on to run its oil industry and other sectors.
Besides the American, the victims included a Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African, an Egyptian, two Sri Lankans, three Saudis, three Filipinos and eight Indians, the Interior Ministry said in a statement read on Saudi television. It said 25 people were injured.
The statement said Saudi forces had evacuated 241 people of different nationalities from the Oasis complex. It said the lead militant in the attacks was wounded and captured, but that three militants - one of them wounded - escaped. It also said the captured militant was ''an important target'' for authorities.
In Washington, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy, Nail al-Jubeir, told CNN that one militant also was killed in the standoff with Saudi forces.
''The intent was to cripple the world economy by sending the message that foreigners are not safe inside Saudi Arabia,'' he said, also dismissing the notion that the kingdom cannot protect its people.
''It does not take much to come into a building with a rifle and shoot innocent people,'' he said, comparing the attack to a drive-by shooting. ''Unfortunately it is very difficult to guard against.''
The militants were wearing military-style dress when they attacked the office compounds around 7:30 a.m. Saturday and then fled up the street to the Oasis Residential Resort - an upscale complex with shops, restaurants, a private waterfront and an ice-skating rink.
At the Oasis, the gunmen apparently tried to target Westerners and avoid harming Muslims, according to residents and employees.
At the start of the hostage crisis, Saudi security forces stormed the walled complex and surrounded the attackers on the sixth floor of a high-rise building. Those forces tried to reach the hostages during the night, they said, but found ****y traps.
Just after sunrise, three helicopters dropped Saudi commandos into the compound. Gunfire, heard sporadically overnight, rang out again. Within a few hours, the standoff was over.
In the purported al-Qaida claims, the statement Sunday attributed to al-Moqrin rails against the Saudi government, accusing it of opening the country to Americans and providing ''America with oil at the cheapest prices according to their masters' wish, so that their economy does not collapse.''
The speaker says the struggle with America would be pursued ''in the Arabian peninsula, Afghanistan, in Iraq'' and that the battle with the Saudi government will continue until the ''crusaders are expelled from the land of Islam.''
Statements posted Saturday on 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.
The CIA said it was investigating the claims. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile, has vowed to destabilize Saudi Arabia for its close ties to the United States. His terror network has been blamed for previous attacks in the kingdom.
Several Saudi newspapers reported Sunday that the attackers threw at least one body from the Oasis building were they were holding hostages and mutilated the bodies of some of those killed.
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, the station, giving no attribution.
Michael Rothman, chief energy strategist at Merrill Lynch in New York, said ''a limited psychological reaction'' might occur 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 a car bumper.
At the Oasis, the militants indicated they were trying to separate Muslims from non-Muslims. Lebanon's ambassador said five Lebanese hostages were freed, and Oasis residents and employees said militants asked them if they were Muslim. Militants have been criticized in the Arab world for previous attacks in which Saudis and other Arabs were killed.
Abu Hashem, a 45-year-old Iraqi-American engineer, said four gunmen - lightly bearded Saudi men who looked 18 to 25 years old - asked for his residency papers.
''They said, 'You are American,' and I told them I am an American Muslim. They said, 'We do not kill Muslims,''' They then apologized for breaking into his home.
Abdul Salam al-Hakawati, a 38-year-old Lebanese corporate financial officer, said gunmen rummaging around his family residence said, ''This is a Muslim house'' - apparently seeing framed Quranic verses on the walls.
He said a man in his early 20s, carrying a machine gun and wearing an ammunition belt, told him: ''We only want to hurt Westerners and Americans. Can you tell us where we can find them here?''
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. It was not clear if other companies in the center had accounted for all their employees.
Saudi Arabia launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists after attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003. The most recent terror attack 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. Many expatriates left the kingdom after the Yanbu attack.
05/30/04 13:16 EDT
[/quote]