Al Qaeda Attack in Saudi Oil City

29 May 2004

The Daily Telegraph and the Scotsman provide some detail on the attack this morning that left at least five foreign workers and a child dead in the Saudi city of Khobar on Saturday morning. The dead reportedly include an American, a Briton and three Filipinos. The gunmen also seized a number of hostages. A quote from an email claiming responsibility and purportedly from Al-Qaeda makes the targeting of the oil industry clear:

“The heroic mujahedeen in the Jerusalem Squad were able, by the grace of God, to raid the locations of American companies ... specializing in oil and exploration activities and which are plundering the Muslims’ resources.”

Al Khobar is a commercial -- oil -- city on the Persian Gulf, close to Dhahran, the headquarters of Saudi Aramco. (Click on map at right to enlarge.) In 1996 terrorists used a truck bomb to attack the Khobar Towers housing complex in Khobar, killing 19 US airmen and wounding more than 300. Earlier in the month Al Qaeda killed oil workers in the western city of Yanbu (circled in yellow on the map.)

This latest attack will just add to the market nervousness about oil supply, as fears grow about a potential disruption of the Saudi flow.

UPDATE: From Reuters. Death toll now appears to be 16, with 50 hostages held.