SAUDI ARABIA: GUNMEN HAVE SHOT DEAD AN AMERICAN CITIZEN OUTSIDE HIS HOME IN RIYADH

Record ID: 189798

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: GUNMEN HAVE SHOT DEAD AN AMERICAN CITIZEN OUTSIDE HIS HOME IN RIYADH
  • Date: 8th June 2004
  • Summary: (W7) RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (JUNE 8, 2004)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF HOUSE OF DEAD AMERICAN IN EAST RIYADH (7 SHOTS) 1.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Reuters ID: LVABDVPJU2NSEX5MMPJP24DLVZE5
  • Story Text: Gunmen have shot dead an American citizen outside
    his home in a suburb of the Saudi Arabian capital Rityadh.



    Gunmen killed an American working for a U.S.

    company in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday (June 8),
    the fifth attack on Westerners and other foreigners in the
    world's top oil exporter in five weeks.

    The latest killing in the kingdom, which has been
    battling to stamp out attacks by Saudi-born Osama bin
    Laden's al Qaeda for more than a year, was likely to
    heighten fears among tens of thousands of expatriates, many
    of whom work in the oil industry.

    The American worked for U.S. contracting firm Vinnell,
    a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp that trains the Saudi
    National Guard, an elite force protecting the pro-U.S.

    monarchy.

    Police said the American was killed when shots were
    fired at him outside his house in eastern Riyadh.

    Witnesses said the gunmen followed the American in a
    car when he left a clinic to go to his villa in the Rawda
    area and shot him when he got out of his vehicle.

    Dubai-based Al Arabiya television said the gunmen fired
    nine shots, two of which hit the American's head.

    Vinnell spokesman Jay McCaffrey, speaking from the
    company's offices outside Washington, confirmed that an
    employee of Vinnell Arabia had been shot and killed by an
    unknown assailant.

    A U.S. State Department official said the man could not
    be identified until his next of kin had been notified.

    On Sunday, suspected al Qaeda gunmen killed an Irish
    cameraman Simon Cumbers, 36, and critically wounded BBC
    security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, in a Riyadh area
    known as a militant stronghold.

    Suspected Al Qaeda militants killed 22 people, 19 of
    them expatriates, in a shooting and hostage-taking attack
    in the eastern oil city of Khobar last month that helped
    push oil prices to record highs on fears of instability in
    the kingdom.

    A U.S. counter-terrorism official said the latest
    killing signalled a new tactic by al Qaeda to carry out
    "opportunist" attacks to drive Westerners from the kingdom,
    where many work in key economic sectors.

    A purported statement by al Qaeda militants in Saudi
    Arabia this week warned of new attacks on U.S. and Western
    airlines and said Muslims should stay away from Westerners
    to avoid becoming victims.

    At least 80 civilians and police have been killed since
    May last year in a string of suicide bombings and attacks
    that authorities have blamed on al Qaeda.

    Police have killed or arrested nine top militants.

    Al Qaeda's chief in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin,
    has vowed this year will be "miserable and bloody" for the
    kingdom.

    The British embassy has advised its 30,000 nationals
    against non-essential travel to the kingdom. Some 35,000
    Americans live in Saudi Arabia and last month Washington
    urged them to leave.

    Nine Vinnell employees were among 52 people killed in
    triple suicide bombings on compounds housing Westerners in
    Riyadh in May last year. The attacks were blamed on al
    Qaeda.



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