Raids leave Gulf's Westerners 'scared to death' of retaliation

RIYADH - Western expatriates in the Gulf are on edge after a Canadian was shot dead in Kuwait in what appeared to be a response to American air raids on Afghanistan.

Nerves had already been frayed by a bomb blast in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which killed two people including an American before the US raids started.

This week, a German couple in the kingdom escaped unhurt after a firebomb attack.

"People who live in compounds are scared to death - it's like being a red-striped zebra in a regular zebra herd," said Saudi-based US executive David Castillo, referring to the enclosed residential suburbs where Westerners live in Riyadh.

"A lot of people are stocking up on food and supplies so that if something does happen they can be more secure."

European Union ambassadors were meeting in Riyadh this weekend to discuss security after the firebomb attack.

"The possibility of having to leave is in everyone's minds," said Catherine, a 35-year-old Australian teacher in Saudi Arabia.

One Western security expert in a Gulf state said he would start wearing a handgun that he normally kept at a secure site.

The Canadian murdered in Kuwait was aircraft technician Luc Ethier. In his mid-30s, he worked at the Ahmad al-Jaber airbase, where the US has kept aircraft since the 1991 Gulf War.

His Filipina companion was wounded in what appeared to be a premeditated attack related to the strikes.

"We feel like we're walking on thin ice," said a British defence executive in Oman.

And after meeting fellow expats at a school sports day in Kuwait, one woman said: "I think people are starting to panic now.

"The mothers are asking if they should leave with the kids."

One diplomat in Yemen said several embassies in Sanaa had received bomb threats.

More than 100,000 Americans and Europeans, and several million Asians work in the Gulf, which has two-thirds of the world's oil reserves.

- REUTERS

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