KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi security forces stormed an upscale expatriate housing complex where suspected Islamic militants holed up with a reported 50 hostages after attacking oil company offices. The kingdom's de facto ruler said at least 10 people, including a child, were killed in the initial rampage.
At least three Westerners, including an American, were believed among the dead in the second fatal attack on oil industry targets in the kingdom this month. Philippines officials also were investigating whether two of their citizens had been killed, and there were reports the death toll could be as high as 15 or 16.
A Saudi security official had said the attack was "definitely inspired by al-Qaida," as evidenced by the method.
Crown Prince Abdullah said four militants stormed the oil company offices in Khobar and "those killed are about 10 _ Saudis and non-Saudis." Abdullah, who effectively rules Saudi Arabia because King Fahd is ailing, was speaking at a meeting with professors from King Abdul Aziz University in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah.
"Among those killed was a female child," Abdullah said, adding the attackers were now surrounded. There had been earlier reports a boy was killed.
A police officer on the scene told The Associated Press the attackers were surrounded on the sixth floor of a high-rise building in the Oasis, a housing complex, and had "people with them," meaning hostages. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not say how many hostages were being held.
But a senior manager of the complex said 50 hostages were being held, among them Americans, Italians and Arabs. The manager spoke on condition of anonymity.
Area residents said the attackers went into a residential building, separated Muslims from non-Muslims and freed the Muslims.
There had been earlier reports that security officials had stormed the compound and the hostages were freed, but area residents said they had heard the security forces had been driven off by grenades and were awaiting reinforcements.
A report carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, attributed to an unidentified senior Interior Ministry official, said four militants fired randomly at a company and at a residential compound at about 7:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), then entered a residential compound "where the security forces surrounded them in one of the buildings. They are currently being dealt with."
The three sites hit in Khobar, 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of Riyadh, the capital, were a compound of offices and housing for Apicorp, the investment arm of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies; the Petroleum Center building that contained offices for various international oil-related companies; and the Oasis residential compound, a luxurious, walled expatriate community on the Gulf.
Among the companies in the compounds are Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Total SA and Saudi Aramco; Lukoil Holdings of Russia; and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec. Shell spokesman Simon Buerck and a Saudi oil industry official, Yahya Shinawi, said employees from those companies were safe.
Additional companies believed to be in the compounds included Schlumberger and INOVx, both based in Houston, and Aveva, of Cambridge, England. There was no immediate word on their employees.
Saudi Arabia relies heavily on 6 million expatriate workers to run its oil industry and other sectors. Many Western energy corporations have offices in Khobar, which is the center of Saudi Arabia's oil industry and where state-owned energy giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. _ better known as Saudi Aramco _ has its headquarters.
Concern over whether Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, can protect its oil industry from terrorists were partly blamed for recent oil price spikes to new highs.
Peter Gignoux, a London-based oil adviser for GDP Associates in New York, said news of Saturday's violence might trigger a further rise in oil prices, but he noted that Saudi oil supplies and export facilties were unaffected.
Michael Rothman, chief energy strategist at Merrill Lynch in New York, agreed that there might be "a limited psychological reaction" in oil markets.
"However tragic, this is not particularly significant from a supply perspective because it would take an extreme leap of imagination to extrapolate it into a dangerous supply side event, which it is not," he said. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful member of OPEC, has been urging the oil producers cartel to boost oil production to try to reduce prices. Saudi Arabia is the only producer with much spare capacity to pump more oil, and Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said last weekend that his country would add some 2 million barrels to global supplies if there was enough demand.
Journalists were turned away from the compounds, and were kept well back from the Oasis, which was surrounded by hundreds of policeme. Shooting could be heard and ambulances were seen outside and helicopters hovered overhead. A civilian car had slammed into a sign outside the Apicorp compound; at the entrance, a burned car was visible and glass shards littered the ground.
Guards for other area compounds said four gunmen in military-style dress first attacked two oil company offices, then engaged Saudi security forces in a shootout and hunkered down inside the Oasis.
While the attacks still were in progress, a statement was posted on an Islamic Web site apparently referring to it under the title "A gift to al-Moqrin and his heroic brothers," referring to AbdulAziz al-Moqrin, who is believed to lead al-Qaida operations on the Arabian Peninsula. However, the text of the statement had been deleted and it was unclear if the posting was a claim of responsibility.
Another Islamic Web site known as clearinghouse for al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups, offered a link to what was billed as, "an early statement from holy warriors in the Arabian Peninsula about al-Khobar operation." However, the statement itself was not accessible. In the past, Web site administrators have blocked links to statements when they doubt their authenticity.
Mahmoud Ouf, an Egyptian consular officer in Riyadh, said Rami Samir el-Goneimi, an Egyptian 10-year-old, was killed in the compound of Apicorp, where his father worked. Egypt's Middle East News Agency quoted his father, Samir, as saying his son was in a car with other students on their way to school.
"The terrorists opened heavy fire on the car, killing Rami and setting fire to the car," his father was quoted as saying. Rami's sister ran from the car uninjured, Samir el-Goneimi said.
Witnesses said they saw three men with Western features lying on the ground covered with newspapers. Those bodies were taken away in ambulances, they said.
One American was confirmed dead, a U.S. Embassy official said on condition of anonymity.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore would say only that two Americans were among the wounded.
Philippines' Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla in Riyadh said two Filipinos may have been killed inside the Petroleum Center offices and two others wounded, but the embassy was still trying to be certain.
The British Foreign Office in London said British officials were en route to Khobar from Riyadh to check into reports a British national was dead.
Two security guards also were believed to be dead, according to a Western diplomat in Riyadh who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The pan-Arab satellite television network Al-Arabiya showed the body of a man, apparently shot dead, in the driver's seat of a car and the burned-out frame of a sport utility vehicle. Bullet holes were visible in other vehicles shown, some with windows smashed and blood staining the seats.
Lebanon's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Chammat, told The Associated Press that five Lebanese hostages had been released Saturday from the Oasis compound _ a father, mother and their son as well as another Lebanese woman and her son.
Witnesses said the four men in military-style uniforms who apparently carried out the attack used a small car and were accompanied by another sports utility vehicle.
Saudi Arabia launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists following attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003. The government says it has foiled dozens of terror attacks in the kingdom. Most of the attacks were blamed on al-Qaida.
The most recent terror attack in Saudi Arabia targeted the offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. in the western city of Yanbu on May 1, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. Many expatriate workers left, at least temporarily, after the Yanbu attack.
In April, attackers bombed a security building in Riyadh, killing five people and injuring 148 more.
A week ago, a German who worked as a chef for Saudi Arabia's national airline was shot and killed by unknown assailants. Authorities are investigating whether the attack was linked to terrorism.
In 1996 in Dhahran, an eastern city just outside Khobar, a truck bombing killed 19 American military personnel at the Khobar Towers barracks.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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