Posted on 05/01/2004 2:45:36 AM PDT by sarcasm
RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. and British diplomats said on Saturday they were checking reports that a number of Western expatriates had been shot in the Red Sea industrial city of Yanbu.
``We are looking into reports that Westerners have been killed or injured in a shooting,'' a British embassy spokesman said. The United States embassy said it had also received reports that an American citizen had been attacked.
The dive beach I went to when I worked there almost twenty years ago was great. Sheer drop off from reef, lots of stuff to look at underwater and the fish were amazing.
Aside from that, there's the 24 inch dual pipeline terminal, the crude oil storage and tanker loading facility, the oil refinery, the petrochemical plant, the Royal Commission Power Plant, the main port of Yanbu (the only deep water port on the Saudi Red Sea coast), the main coastal highway and the start of the Tap Line Road into the interior. In its heyday, there were 9 ex-pat camps for Bechtel alone. I lived at Bechtel 9 and worked at the Mobil Oil Petrochem plant.
The natives there are Bedouin, few are of the privileged class (not of the king's or his wives clans). In 1984-85 they were seething with resentment of all things Western (read American) and feared the royals.
I'm surprised it took until now for some of the more "wild-eyed" indigenous to strike.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.