The Hindu : International : U.S. asks all citizens in Saudi Arabia to leave

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 03, 2004

International

International

U.S. asks all citizens in Saudi Arabia to leave

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, MAY 2. A series of attacks by militants in the Saudi industrial city of Yanbu on Saturday has triggered the departure of around 50 workers belonging to a firm that was targeted amid a fresh warning by the U.S. embassy in Riyadh that all American citizens in the oil rich Gulf country should depart.

A spokesman of the firm ABB Lummus that was attacked said that an estimated 100 people that include the families of the expatriate workers would be leaving Yanbu in a "couple of days." The attack led to the deaths of two Americans, two British and an Australian national, while a Canadian and a U.S. citizen were wounded. Two Saudi security personnel were killed and 25 others were injured.

The Switzerland-based company was engaged in a project to revamp an oil complex that was co-owned by Exxon Mobil, an American oil giant and the Saudi company SABIC. The assailants were suspected to be either workers or connected to `insiders' who were well-acquainted with the firm. They had entered the facility using employee gate passes and targeted the company's top three functionaries engaged with the project.The U.S. embassy in Riyadh reiterated its earlier warning that all American citizens in Saudi Arabia, estimated between 30,000 and 35,000 should leave. The embassy repeated its April 15 warning, "Private American citizens currently in Saudi Arabia are strongly urged to depart." An embassy spokeswoman added, "Our advice stands. Americans should not travel to Saudi Arabia and those that are here should depart."

There were no immediate indications that an American exodus from Saudi Arabia was about to begin. Analysts said that such a move would be detrimental to Saudi Arabia's oil-based economy that depends on expatriates. Saudi Arabia's English daily, Arab News said that following the shooting, gunmen tied the body of one of foreigners to the rear of a Land Cruiser and dragged it for nearly 3 km before it broke loose.

Saudi Arabia's top Al-Qaeda leader, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, had earlier issued a call that bodies of Americans should be dragged through the streets of the Kingdom. "God willing, the day will come when bodies of Americans and Jews will be dragged, humiliated and trampled in the Arabian peninsula" Al-Muqrin in a recent statement had said.

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