A Western petrochemical firm targeted by gunmen in Saudi Arabia said yesterday it was evacuating some staff after five of their colleagues were killed and the US embassy repeated a warning for Americans to leave.
Militants sprayed gunfire inside an oil contractor's office, killing at least six people -- two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi, then tied one of their victims to the bumper of a car and dragged it past horrified students at a high school in this Red Sea industrial town of Yanbu.
Police killed the four gunmen in a shootout after a car chase. One of the attackers killed was reported to be on the kingdom's list of most-wanted terrorists, many of them suspects in previous suicide attacks on foreign housing compounds in Riyadh. The two attacks were blamed on al-Qaeda.
Students told reporters yesterday that bearded men drove a car into the Ibn Hayyan Secondary Boys School parking lot as classes began on Saturday. They fired into the air to attract students' attention, then urged the boys to go to an Iraqi city where US troops are battling insurgents.
"God is great! God is great! Come join your brothers in Fallujah," they shouted. Pointing to the bloodied and badly damaged corpse, his clothes shredded, they screamed: "This is the president of America."
Students and school officials said some of the boys ran crying from the scene.
An 18-year-old student, who gave only his first name, Rayyan, said he saw three bearded men in the car.
"I was shocked and terrified when I saw them. I just froze. I didn't know what to do," Rayyan said, his voice shaking. "I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep the whole night. I have been having nightmares ...This thing has changed my life forever."
"This is not right," he said. "This is un-Islamic."
The man Rayyan and other students saw being dragged was apparently taken from oil contractor ABB-Lummus's office. Reports on the number of wounded ranged from 25 to 50. Reports on the number of Saudi victims conflicted.
The Saudi Press Agency report said a Saudi National Guardsman was killed. The US Embassy said several Saudi security workers were "killed and wounded in their fight with the terrorists," but gave no numbers. An American, a Pakistani and a Canadian were reported injured along with at least 18 soldiers or police.
Swiss-based firm ABB Lummus said staff who were traumatized by the attack, the first militant strike against an economic target in the kingdom, would be going home.
It did not say how many would leave, but the company has about 90 employees in Yanbu and it said 110 working elsewhere in Saudi Arabia would continue to work.
The gunmen had killed the top three officials involved in an upgrading project at the Saudi petrochemical firm YANPET, jointly owned by US Exxon Mobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp, an ABB executive said.
Three of the gunmen worked at the ABB-Lummus office in Yanbu. They used their key cards to enter the building and sneak another attacker through an emergency gate, according to an Interior Ministry source quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The four attackers are brothers and are Saudis, a security official said condition of anonymity. He did not further identify them.
Crown Prince Abdullah said "foreign elements" were behind the killing and Saudi Ambassador to Britain Turki al-Faisal said he believed al Qaeda was responsible.
Crown Prince Abdullah, speaking on Saudi television, said: "The kingdom will eliminate terrorism no matter how long it takes."
State oil firm Saudi Aramco has vowed to guard he kingdom's vital oil assets, saying it had tightened security measures for plants and employees.
Armed guards outside the petrochemical plant where Saturday's initial attack took place barred journalists from entering the facility yesterday. Security was tight throughout Yanbu yesterday, with police checkpoints and staggered cement roadblocks slowing traffic. Armored personnel vehicles guarded the main road from the airport and blocked streets.
Jina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the US consul general based in Jiddah, said she met with some of the about 400 Americans in Yanbu yesterday and repeated an earlier US warning of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia" and advice to Americans to leave the kingdom.
"The situation is still very dangerous ... we urge Americans to consider departure," she said, adding that some Americans in Yanbu were considering that advice.
In another attack in the city on Saturday, a pipe bomb was thrown over a wall of the Yanbu International School, causing minor damage and slightly injuring a custodian, according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council, which shares security information between the US government and the private sector.
``Staff and children had already been advised not to report to school that morning,'' apparently in response to the shooting, said a warden's message posted at the US Embassy's Web site.
Intelligence had suggested al-Qaeda wanted to strike at Saudi oil interests. Bin Laden -- a Saudi exile -- long has called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic credentials.
Saudi Arabia _ the world's biggest oil producer -- relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil industry and other sectors. The kingdom produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique