Posted on 06/08/2004 8:17:38 PM PDT by blam
Saudi terrorists kill US military adviser to royal family's guards
By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 09/06/2004)
Saudi terrorists yesterday killed an American military adviser to the elite National Guard hours after al-Qa'eda warned Muslims to stay away from westerners, who were now a priority target.
The dead man, Robert Jacobs, 62, worked for the Vinnell Corporation, an American defence contractor hired by the US military to train the guard, whose duties include protecting the Saudi royal family.
Saudi police at the scene of the shooting
It was the fifth assault on westerners in Saudi Arabia in five weeks and the second time in two days that an individual appeared to have been selected as a specific target.
Terrorists shot dead Simon Cumbers, 36, an Irish cameraman, and wounded Frank Gardner, 42, the BBC's security correspondent, in Riyadh on Sunday.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London, said the attacks "showed terrorists in Saudi Arabia had been reduced to opportunity targets rather than well-planned attacks such as the one mounted on Khobar [when 22 hostages were killed last month]".
Police said the latest killing took place at about 2.30pm after shots were fired at the victim's home in a residential area of eastern Riyadh. Some reports said he was followed home by three men after leaving a clinic and was shot inside his flat. Vinnell said that Mr Jacobs had chosen to live outside the company's protected compound.
Nine Vinnell employees were killed in May last year when terrorists attacked their compound and offices in Riyadh. Vinnell employs about 100 people, some of them former special forces personnel, in the kingdom. A statement on an Islamist website and signed "al-Qa'eda on the Arabic Peninsula" gave warning that westerners and western airlines would be a priority target.
"All that is affiliated with crusaders [westerners] - from compounds, bases and means of transport, especially western and American airlines - will be the direct targets of our next operations," the statement said.
It urged Muslims to "avoid contact with American and western crusaders in their homes, compounds, movements and means of transport in all shapes and forms" to spare "our Muslim brothers' blood".
(Thank God today wasn't 'little b' day.)
---Prince Turki---
You can't make this stuff up!
LOL, I guess I have about another hour and one half...my time.
Bump
Why we don't step back and let these b@st@rds hack each other up is beyond me. I would love to see each half of the Saudis annihilate each other. What a fresh start this would be for the Mideast.
> Why we don't step back and let these b@st@rds
> hack each other up is beyond me
We aren't?
This wasn't a US Military advisor killed, but a
private contractor. If the US was involved in helping
the House of Saud prop up their house of cards, I'd
expect the headline to have been different.
SA seems destined for a major insurrection, with widespread
palace intrigues and back-stabbing. I don't think the US
could stop it if we wanted to.
Another casualty is apt to be the price of oil, for a
while anyway.
" hired by the US military to train the guard, whose duties include protecting the Saudi royal family."
Please tell me that the US isn't footing the bill to train the Saudis and protect the "Royal" family.
Al Haj Jive Turki....
Not an expert, but I was under the impression Vinell was contracted by the Saudi gov.
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