Saudis hunt al Qaeda gunmen after Khobar massacre

10.20am

KHOBAR - Saudi forces were combing the kingdom on Monday for suspected al Qaeda militants who massacred 22 civilians and took dozens of foreigners hostage in an attack on its globally vital oil industry.

Security forces set up nationwide checkpoints after three gunmen, using hostages as temporary cover, escaped Saudi commandos who stormed a building in the eastern oil city of Khobar on Sunday to end a long siege.

The leader of the militants, Nimr al-Baqmi, was wounded and captured during the rescue of the hostages. All hostages were believed freed or dead.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco vowed to keep its crude supplies flowing smoothly in a bid to avert a hike in already-high world oil prices. Energy markets reopen on Tuesday, Monday being a holiday in many market centers.

The Khobar assault was the second in less than a month on the Saudi oil industry, a lifeline of the world economy. The attacks appear aimed at overthrowing the ruling House of Saud itself.

An internet statement purporting to come from al Qaeda said Osama bin Laden's network carried out the unprecedented operation, which raised the stakes in the battle Saudi Arabia has waged against the group for a year.

It vowed to rid the birthplace of Islam of "infidels." An audio tape apparently from top Saudi al Qaeda leader Abdulaziz al-Muqrin vowed that this year would be "bloody and miserable" for Saudi Arabia.

Two days ago Muqrin issued plans for urban guerrilla warfare designed to topple the royal family.

The bloodbath began on Saturday when gunmen in military garb opened fire on the Al-Khobar Petroleum Center building, housing offices of major Western oil firms, before storming into compounds containing oil services offices and employees' homes.

The body of a Briton was dragged through the streets behind a car, witnesses said, in an echo of the attack on a petrochemical site in the Red Sea town of Yanbu earlier this month in which an American suffered the same fate.

The gunmen then fled to the upmarket Oasis housing compound, taking some 50 foreigners hostage, and a 25-hour siege began.

On Sunday, commandos dropped from helicopters to storm the building. The Interior Ministry said 41 foreigners, many traumatised and injured, were rescued and 201 other residents who had been trapped in the compound were evacuated.

A Saudi diplomat said nine hostages were killed before the forces entered the building.

The Interior Ministry, giving the figure of 22 dead, did not make clear how many were killed during the siege and rescue and how many in Saturday's shooting attacks on various Khobar buildings.

The ministry listed the dead as an American, a Briton, an Italian, a South African, a Swede, eight Indians, two Sri Lankans, three Filipinos, an Egyptian boy and three Saudis. It said 25 people were injured.

The list did not include seven Saudi security men whom security sources had said were killed on Saturday. State television however showed officials offering prayers for two dead security men.

Britain's ambassador to Saudi Arabia said militants could be in the final stages of preparing further attacks. Washington again urged its citizens to leave the country.

Senior Saudi oil officials met top Western oil executives in Dhahran to reassure them about security. An oil executive said he did not expect a mass exodus of expatriate workers.

A senior Saudi royal said the militants would not succeed in harming the stability and economy of the kingdom.

"Every desperate act of violence will increase the kingdom's determination to vanquish the militants," said the Saudi ambassador to the United States Bandar bin Sultan, son of the Saudi defence minister.

Al Qaeda has vowed to destabilise the country, whose leaders it considers subservient to the West. In 1996, the then little known group chose Khobar to mount one of its first major attacks, blowing up a compound and killing 19 US soldiers.

- REUTERS