Two carloads of terrorists attacked compound, says NZ man

By JAMES GARDINER

A New Zealand man caught in the terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia yesterday says two carloads of terrorists burst through the gates of the Riyadh compound firing automatic weapons and detonating a huge load of explosives inside one of the vehicles.

The blast inside the Al Hamra Oasis Village blew apart dozens of nearby houses and apartments in a blast that sent a fireball into the night sky and was felt 26km away.

At least 10 Americans, an Australian and people of several other nationalities were reported to be dead, and up to 160 people were wounded.

"People are just absolutely devastated," the man told the Herald last night. "It's like a war zone."

The attack was one of several at about 11pm Saudi time on some of the many compounds that house the tens of thousands of foreign workers in the Arab kingdom.

At Al Hamra, home to several thousand people and Riyadh's British School, partygoers were fired on as they stood outside in the warm evening around a swimming pool.

The New Zealand man, a computer consultant from Wellington, said he and his wife and children were woken by a distant bomb blast.

That was followed by rapid-fire gun shots, then an explosion that blew in their front door and windows.

The man, who is organising his family's departure from Riyadh, spoke on condition his name not be published.

The damage to their home, on the outskirts of the compound, was minor compared to the wreckage he found where the bomb went off.

When he ventured out shortly after dawn he found numerous bullet shells and blood-stained clothing among the wreckage strewn up to 100m from the bomb blast crater, which he described as 2m deep and 10m across.

"All the main walls have been blown in. These are concrete walls just blown straight back."

A Scot working in Riyadh told the BBC how he hid in a toilet when a blast shook his apartment.

"We thought the compound perhaps was being invaded by gunmen. The only place where there was a door left was my spare toilet so we locked ourselves in, and I telephoned my wife and said we're being bombed to hell."

The New Zealander said two of his workmates were in hospital, wounded by flying glass.

He said his neighbour saw the vehicles speeding into the compound gates with guns blazing.

One of his workmates saw one of the gunmen get out of the car and spray bullets around.

"I can see the bullet shells along the road where they drove."

His family were woken about 11pm by a loud, distant explosion that was clearly a bomb blast.

"We went in to check the kids and brought them all into our main bedroom," he said. "As we were doing that I could hear gunfire. I knew it was pretty close."

Minutes later they felt a huge blast "like a sharp jolt in an earthquake" and heard more gunfire.

From their upstairs windows, they saw large numbers of Arabs gathering outside the compound.

"The whole thing about the Americans is they just don't understand how much they're hated here. Unfortunately they just see any white face and assume they're Americans as well.

"You just never know how they're going to react. There was quite a swelling of them. Eventually they were dispersed by the police."



Two weeks ago, he and his wife had decided it was safe for her and the children to return to Riyadh from Europe, where they had gone when tensions rose in the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.



The compound has more than 400 units, ranging from one-bedroom apartments to luxury five-bedroom villas.