2004 Khobar massacre
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In the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia, 17 terrorists attacked two oil industry installations, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation building and the Petroleum Centre, and a foreign workers' housing complex, the Oasis Compound, in the Gulf city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia. 41 hostages were freed, 25 were injured and 22 were killed, among them 19 foreigners. The nationalities of those killed included eight people from India, three from the Philippines, two from Sri Lanka, one each from Sweden, Italy, England, the United States, South Africa and Egypt. 14 attackers were captured or killed, and 3 escaped. Some accounts of the attack suppose that Saudi security forces facilitated the perpetrators' escape, given that it was broad daylight and the Oasis compound was surrounded by hundreds of armed soldiers, police officers, and reporters at the time the terrorists managed to escape. Kidnappers asked the hostages if they were Christian or Muslim, letting the Muslims go, and slitting the throats of non-Muslims. A previously unheard-of militant group calling itself "The Jerusalem Squadron" -- a local Saudi Arabia-based faction of al-Qaeda -- claimed responsibility and said it was attacking "Zionists and Crusaders" who are there to "steal our oil and resources". An audio tape was released in which Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, thought to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Saudi Arabia, took responsibility. On the tape he said "among the killed was a Japanese [sic] who was slaughtered because USA have mixed his tribe into the war against Muslims." According to the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the goal of the terrorists was to shake Saudi Arabia's stability and economy.
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[edit] Timeline of the Attacks
Various accounts exist of the precise details of this attack.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
[edit] Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre
0645. A group of four terrorists, separate from the group that attacked the Oasis compound, in a vehicle shoot at guards and employees around the front gate of the Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre, which is next to the DHL building on the main Doha to Khobar road. An American and two Philipinos protecting the American are killed. Police arrive and kill two terrorists. A third is killed running from the building, and a fourth escapes over a wall into the Al Hada compound. He made his way up to the holiday Inn and hijacked a car. Before escaping he shot up the Holiday Inn. However, there were no casualties except the building.
[edit] Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation Building
0645. Terrorists in a vehicle attack the Apicorp Compound. The compound is a quarter`of a mile away down the Khobar Dammam highway next to Raka compound. They used an RPG on the gatehouse. Two security guards were killed.
A school bus was coming out at the time and was shot at, killing a 9-year old Egyptian boy who was the son of an Apicorp employee.
Michael Hamilton, British, a leading member of the Apicorp Corporation, who was going to pick his wife from the embassy, arrived at the gate. His car was shot at. They dragged him out of the car still alive and tied him to the back of their four wheel drive vehicle and drove of up the Raka road to the Dammam highway. Hamilton's facial features were unrecognizable when his body and car were later found dumped under a causeway. The terrorist vehicle with Hamilton tied behind made it as far as the intersection lights before a Saudi civilian rammed their car off the road. The terrorist shot the Saudi dead before he could get out of his car. The police shot the terrorists before they could make their escape.
Thus Apicorp's headquarters were attacked from outside, but not infiltrated. It is thought that had the attackers entered the compound and attacked residents at this point, casualties would have been much higher.
[edit] Oasis 3 Compound
0645. six terrorists scale the walls of Oasis 3 compound. Another five drive up to the main Vehicle Check Point. A civilian car is in front of the attackers and a school bus behind in the queue. The checkpoint has two close gates. A car will drive through one gate, gets inspected after the first gate is closed, and then the second gate opens to let the car through and then closes. This morning, the second was continuously open, so when the first gate opened, the terrorists drove straight through the second gate. While doing so, a terrorist opened the sunroof of their vehicle and with a machine gun killed the two armed guards. Turning back, he fired on the school bus killing two children and wounding four children. A 5-year-old and 7-year-old child were critically wounded.
The terrorists then drive into the main compound area. A security guard then got the children off the schoolbus and conducted them to a safe area in the compound.
The terrorists get out of their car and move on foot into the residential complex. They kick in doors and slit the throats of any non-muslims they could find. Among those murdered were an Italian cook, Antonio Amato (35), and a Swedish maître d', Magnus Johansson (50), both of whom had taken jobs in Saudi Arabia for the higher pay. The terrorists' killed one American -- Frank Floyd, an assistant marketing director for Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd. Most of the killings took place inside the compound's Italian restaurant, Casa Mia, where Amato and Johansson worked. According to an account by terrorist Fawaz al-Nashimi, captives were also executed with bullets to the head.[6] The terrorists ate breakfast in the restaurant. They then returned to the first floor with the intention of killing Hindus. Eight Indians were killed. Al-Nashmi lists 3 cohorts, Nimr al-Baqmi, Husayn, and Nadir.
Then they took 54 hostages and put them on the sixth floor of the Soha Towers Hotel in the far east of the compound, attached to the Soha Oasis. They booby-trapped the exits. Al-Nashmi and two cohorts then escaped over the wall and stole a car to make a getaway. This is despite the compound being surrounded by soldiers and reporters with live television. "We were now on a road with trees shadowing the way, and all the security forces thought we were still in the hotel," he wrote. Nimr al-Baqmi is wounded while firing out of his vehicle, and is captured. So Al-Nashmi, Husayn and Nadir are the escapees.
2130. Saudi Special Emergency Forces surround the complex and extract the school bus children who were hiding in an underground parking garage. A few British nursery workers were rescued from the Oasis compound, and were returned to the Las Dunas compound, where their families and friends had been waiting in suspense.
0200, 31 May 2004. Saudi Special Emergency Forces attempt to enter the boobytrapped hotel. Several are injured in two explosions. They pull back after receiving threats from the remaining terrorists that they will kill the hostages.
0230. Two American military officers are injured. They are subsequently admitted to SAAD Specialist hospital and later flown out to Kuwait.
0400. Two British C130's land at Daharan military airbase and according to the british ambassador, members of SO12 provided "logistical" support to the Saudi Forces. They may have infiltrated the compound upon arrival.
0630. Saudi forces in four National Guard Kawasaki KC113 helicopters arriving from the south are lowered onto the roof of the Soha Hotel and storm the building, while ground attackers fire into the building as a diversion. During the first minutes of the assault over 1000 rounds of 50cal are fired into the building. Seven terrorists were captured and two were killed.
[edit] Downtown Khobar
During the same day, shooting broke out in downtown Khobar, about twenty minutes away from the Oasis 3 compound A vehicle was reported to be driving around the Khobar area with 4 armed males on board. They proceeded to kill and injure another 11 security and military personnel located at approximately 5 other compounds with one being confirmed as the Golden Belt.
After the Oasis compound at 0230 by Saudi forces, a number of shots could be heard from different areas of Khobar, some small arms fire and some heavy machine gun fire.
[edit] Emergency response in schools away from attack sites
The British and American schools around Khobar and Dhahran were put on lock-down during the terror attacks. In Dhahran British Grammar School and the Dhahran Elementary and Middle as well as High School (all on the same campus next to the American consulate), children were not released from school until over an hour after the usual time.
[edit] Aftermath of the attacks
Following the attacks, some foreign workers either fled the country or were evacuated by the companies they worked for, as they felt it was too dangerous to stay. Several thousand other Americans and other Westerners, notably those who worked for Saudi Aramco and lived on Saudi Aramco's Dhahran compound nearby, decided to stay in the area.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ [http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=871&tx_ttnews[backPid]=181&no_cache=1 "Lessons from al-Qaeda's Attack on the Khobar Compound", by Abdul Hameed Bakier, August 11, 2006, The Jamestown Foundation]
- ^ "Saudis storm besieged compound" on CNN, 2004-5-30
- ^ Khbar: An Insider's Story, June 8, 2004, Tim Blair
- ^ "Leading a horse to water", June 1, 2004, Belmont Club
- ^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=yIthBQDDc9IC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=khobar+oasis+2004&ots=Nyl3aBOvB5&sig=lnzrr_PbJGAvvanv63sZW5aPPQM&hl=en&ei=tx3SSuy8LZXtlAeA9ompCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=khobar%20oasis%202004&f=false "Negotiating hostage crises with the new terrorists" , by Adam Dolnik, Keith M. Fitzgerald, Praeger, 2007, ISBN 978-0275997489]
- ^ a b "Midnight at the Oasis", by Michael Griffin, June 2004, NthPosition
- ^ "Al-Qaida's Next Action HeroAn insider account of the Khobar assault", by Daniel Kimmage, June 16, 2004, Slate (magazine)
