A dramatic attempt by Saudi commandos to free dozens of hostages held in a housing complex ended in disarray on Sunday night when all but one of the gunmen escaped using hostages as shields and several captives were found dead.
The security forces claimed to have defused the hostage crisis in the dawn operation after a bloody rampage by four armed men in the oil city of Khobar. At least 22 people were killed, including a South African.
But three of the four suspected Islamist militants escaped during the operation by breaking through the security cordon while holding their captives at gunpoint. The human shields were later apparently released unharmed.
The two-day drama was the latest in a succession of violent attacks on western interests in Saudi Arabia by militants linked to al-Qaeda aiming to topple the Saudi regime. The onslaught in the world’s biggest crude producer has raised the fear of further shocks to the already high crude prices.
The US embassy reminded its nationals that they should leave Saudi Arabia, and the Foreign Office said all but essential travel to the country should be deferred.
”We believe further attacks may be in the final stages of preparation,” the British ambassador, Sherard Cowper-Coles, said on Sunday night. The warning was ”based on continuing information”.
Commandos jumped from helicopters on to the roof of the building in the Oasis Residential Resorts where about 50 foreigners were being held, to begin the rescue.
Security officials gave victory signs as residents and hostages streamed out of the compound, but the jubilation was later tempered by news of the militants’ escape and the discovery that several hostages had died during the rescue or shortly before it.
”Nine bodies were found on the premises of the building where the hostages were held when Saudi security forces stormed it,” Jamal Khashoggi, a media adviser to the Saudi ambassador in London, told the Reuters news agency on Sunday night. ”They were nine hostages. I believe the security forces stormed the building when they [the militants] started killing hostages.”
These were in addition to 17 or more people killed earlier. The exact number of casualties was still unclear on Sunday night, when the interior ministry gave the total as 22 dead and 25 injured.
Those killed included a British businessman, eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis, two Sri Lankans, an American, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and an Egyptian, the ministry said.
The Briton who died was named as Michael Hamilton (62) an oil company executive. Witnesses said militants tied his body to a car and dragged it down the streets before dump ing it near a bridge.
The gunmen made no attempt to negotiate with the authorities, Khashoggi said. ”They didn’t have any demands; they just started killing people. When security forces stormed the building they found the nine bodies there.”
He said the security forces had arrested the leader of the militants, a man called Nimr al-Baqmi who was already wanted by the authorities.
A man who identified himself as Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, who is believed to be in charge of al-Qaeda’s activities in Saudi Arabia, boasted about the killings in an audio message posted on the internet yesterday.
”Among those killed was a Japanese who was slaughtered and sent to the sons of his tribe which America has implicated in a war against Muslims, especially in Iraq,” the voice said, adding that an Italian had been killed ”as a gift to his government and leader”.
The speaker accused the Saudi government of providing America ”with oil at the cheapest prices, according to their masters’ wish, so their economy does not collapse”.
The struggle with America would be pursued ”in the Arabian peninsula, Afghanistan, in Iraq”, the speaker said, and the battle with the Saudi government would continue until the ”crusaders are expelled from the land of Islam”.
Accompanying the eight-minute recording was a 700-word written statement which claimed that ”infidels and crusaders” among the hos tages had been killed, including 10 Indians, ”those cow worshippers who killed our Muslim brothers in Kashmir”.
The carnage began on Saturday morning when the gunmen opened fire at the al-Rushaid Petroleum Centre building, which is believed to house the offices of big western oil companies, then stormed into compounds containing oil services offices and staff homes.
Witnesses said the gunmen drove cars with military markings into the Apicorp oil investment company compound and opened fire. An Egyptian boy was killed when a school bus came under fire.
The attackers fled, exchanging shots with security agents before taking the 50 hostages in the Oasis complex. – Guardian Unlimited Â