http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/05/31/al_qaeda_attack_leaves_22_dead/
Militants in Saudi attack escape
Ringleader in custody; death toll reaches 22
By Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times | May 31, 2004
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- After killing at least 22 civilians, most of them foreign, and trapping dozens of people in a 25-hour hostage standoff, three Islamist militants managed yesterday to steal a car, disappear into rush-hour traffic, and slip out of the grip of hundreds of Saudi commandos.
The men, who authorities said used hostages as human shields to escape, were still missing early this morning. Saudi security forces searched for the suspects around Khobar, an eastern oil hub and home to a vast community of foreign workers. One of the missing militants had been wounded fighting security forces, an official at the Ministry of Interior said.
New alerts to Saudi Britons, also
http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/325960.htm
SAUDI ARABIA
'Spectacular terror attack planned for Saudi Arabia'
Posted Mon, 31 May 2004
Intelligence agencies fear that the Islamic terrorists behind the deadly kidnappings in Saudi Arabia over the weekend are planning a "spectacular attack" in the country, The Times of London reported on Monday.
Twenty-two people were killed in the Saudi terrorist operation by gunmen who slit the throats of several foreigners, before commandos stormed a housing complex to rescue dozens of hostages on Sunday.
Key oil installations, or the causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain are among the possible targets of a future attack, according to the British newspaper's intelligence sources.
Final preparations for such an attack are being made by al-Qaeda sympathisers, The Times said.
The Saudi interior ministry on Sunday listed the dead from the hostage-taking and related violence as: eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis, two Sri Lankans, one American, one Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and an Egyptian.
Another 25 people from various countries were wounded in the attacks which were launched Saturday on the offices of several oil companies and only ended 24 hours later when Saudi forces stormed the upmarket Oasis housing compound where the gunmen had taken the hostages, it said in a statement.
The ministry said three of the gunmen managed to escape after seizing a car at gunpoint after the commandos stormed the sprawling compound. A fourth, their alleged leader, was wounded and captured, it said. He was identified only as one of the kingdom's "most wanted".
The attacks were purportedly claimed by the al-Qaeda terror group in a statement posted on an Islamist website and which could not be verified.
A second statement later vowed to "cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of infidels".