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    Chronology of Attacks on Westerners in Saudi ArabiaMon May 31, 2004 08:50 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Suspected al Qaeda militants killed 22 civilians in Saudi Arabia at the weekend. Here is a short chronology of major attacks on Westerners in Saudi Arabia since 1995. Nov 13, 1995 - Five Americans and two Indians killed and 60 people wounded in an explosion in a car park near a U.S.-run military training center in Riyadh. June 25, 1996 - Bomb in fuel truck kills 19 American soldiers and wounds nearly 400 people at U.S. military housing complex in...

Al-Qaeda is changing its tactics. After targeting Western expatriates and security forces in the first phase of its terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, it has now turned its attention to oil companies and could later go for urban guerrilla war as part of its strategy to destabilize the Kingdom, according to a Saudi political scientist. Dr. Abdullah Al-Otaibi, assistant professor of political science at King Saud University, told Arab News the May 1 attack on a petrochemical complex in Yanbu followed by Saturday’s shootout in Alkhobar’s APICORP Compound showed a consistent pattern. Al-Qaeda terrorists “are out to strike against the...

Oil prices are expected to surge - if only temporarily - when already jittery markets reopen globally on Monday after the weekend attack on oil industry personnel in Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia. Although Saudi Arabian oil supplies were not interrupted and Khobar, the Persian Gulf coast town, has no production, export or refining facilities, analysts said on Sunday that fears about the stability of the Saudi regime, the world's most important oil exporter, and further al-Qaeda-linked attacks will be deepened by the raid.So concerned are markets about supply shortages that the recent Saudi pledge to raise production levels ahead of...

The terrorist strike in al-Khobar appears to be more ominous than recent similar strikes in Saudi Arabia. It resembles the May 1 attack on western oil workers in Yanbu, but was more elaborate and more deadly. The attackers were organized and they seem to have prepared extensively. They wore uniforms of the Saudi National Guard, which is responsible for security at residential compounds of foreign workers, and they drove vehicles with military markings. They successfully struck multiple targets and managed to fight off security forces for a considerable period of time. They took hostages, rigged their location with explosives,...

GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT INTELLIGENCE BRIEF Al-Qaida driving U.S. out of Saudi Arabia Amid terror threat, ambassador telling Americans to get out Posted: May 15, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia has been threatened by an al-Qaida operative who has escaped the clutches of the American military for more than two years, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service. Despite Saudi government efforts, al-Qaida operatives like Mustafa Abdul Kader Abed Al Ansari are driving the 35,000 Americans and many of the companies they work for out of Saudi Arabia. About 3,000 Americans work in the oil...

May 14, 2004, 6:51PM Lummus worker dies of wounds from Saudi attack Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle An ABB Lummus Global employee from Houston, who was wounded in a terrorist attack at the company's office in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, died today in a Houston hospital, the company reported. Thomas Washburn, the 40-year-old head manager of ABB's project in Yanbu, was shot in the throat in the May 1 attack, which killed four other employees and an ABB contractor. He was flown out of Saudi Arabia on May 8 and his condition had deteriorated in recent days, said company spokeswoman Patti McDonald....

Saudi security forces are capable of taking on any terrorist group, Prince Miteb ibn Abdullah, assistant deputy commander of the National Guard for military affairs, said yesterday. “Our country will remain strong in the face of destruction and terrorism,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. Prince Miteb’s statement came after security forces killed four terrorists in a gunbattle in Yanbu. The four killed five Westerners and a National Guard security officer and wounded 33 others in the city during the attacks on Saturday morning. Prince Saud ibn Abdullah ibn Thunayyan, chairman of the Royal Commission for Jubail and...

YANBU, Saudi Arabia (AP) - American and European families packed their bags Sunday after a deadly attack on foreigners, and traumatized Saudi schoolchildren recounted how the attackers proudly summoned them to watch them drag a victim's body through the streets. The streets of Yanbu were eerily quiet a day after four brothers went on a bloody rampage that killed five Westerners and a Saudi. But behind closed doors, foreigners scrambled to book flights and Saudis comforted children shocked by the violence. "I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep the whole night. I have been having nightmares," said an 18-year-old student...

AIRO, May 2 — The Swedish-Swiss engineering company whose five engineers were shot to death by Saudi militants in Saudi Arabia said today that it was evacuating some 100 engineers and family members from the kingdom.The company, ABB Lummus, a Houston-based subsidiary of ABB, the giant engineering and oil services firm, gave employees the choice to stay with increased security or to depart and they all chose to leave, said Bjorn Edlund, the spokesman for the firm at its corporate headquarters in Switzerland.The attackers, believed to be religious militants, burst into an engineering office on Saturday in the Saudi coastal...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Gunmen killed four and wounded two Houston-based workers of an international engineering company Saturday. The attackers engaged Saudi police in a bloody battle, shooting wildly in a residential compound and dragging a naked victim behind their getaway car. In all, the gunmen in the city of Yanbu killed six Westerners and wounded at least 25. Police killed four gunmen. Saudi officials blamed the attack on Islamic militants. The attack on workers from ABB Lummus Global's office in west Houston was the latest in a rash of violence against contractors with Houston-based firms working in foreign countries,...

Saudi interior ministry reports shooting-car bomb attack Saturday on unidentified compound in Red Sea port of Yanbu. Unconfirmed details of at least 6 Westerners killed in six-hour attacks – 2 Britons, 1 American, 1 Australian and possibly 1 Italian – one outside a hotel. British chairman of local oil company reports 17 killed when gunmen drove from industrial area to downtown firing all the way. DEBKAfile adds: Still not clear if attack targeted Yanbu’s big oil terminal, main Saudi oil export outlet to the West. If so, it would be first time Saudi oil resources were struck by terrorists exactly...

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.