ANYONE who doubted the enormity of the challenge facing the Kingdom from terrorists must now be convinced by the attacks yesterday in Yanbu. We are all in the front line. Saudis and expatriates alike. Policemen, engineers, restaurant workers, oil workers. Ordinary men, women and children. They may have targeted Westerners in this particular attack, but when the shooting started they did not care who they killed or shot at. All they wanted were bodies on the road, on the sidewalk and in buildings.
The savagery was designed to shock and appall all normal people. It was also aimed at a significant part of the Kingdom’s industrial infrastructure and at the expatriates who work within it. It leaves a bloody calling card, announcing that not only are security forces and foreigners being targeted but so are the country’s sinews of production. The terrorists’ aim is clearly to panic foreign workers into leaving their jobs and so damage the economy.
The response should be a firm message that they have no hope of succeeding. Terror will be met with force. But the attack also underlines the need to accelerate the introduction of markedly heightened security measures. Until recently terrorists have been able to take advantage of a society unused to outrage and any kind of civil disturbance. As part of the war against these savages, however, all of us are going to have to become accustomed to and accept far more stringent security. Just as terrorist attacks in the 1970s transformed international air travel into an often irksome passage through security controls, so must we now in the Kingdom become prepared for the delays and frustrations of far more rigorous checks as we enter and leave public buildings or compounds. Unfortunately Yanbu, which until yesterday had escaped terrorist attacks, is an open community with few compounds. The same goes for Jubail. They present softer targets and the protection of such soft targets will require extra resources.
The message for everyone within the Kingdom is that we must endure all necessary delays and cooperate with law-enforcement agencies because they are acting in the best interests of all of us. It is to the great credit of the security forces that they responded so rapidly. Their swift action surely averted a far greater tragedy. In doing their duty, at least two policemen were slain and many more wounded. It is with heavy hearts that we extend our deepest condolences to the families of all those who died yesterday. It is sadly clear that these will not be the last innocent victims of the butchers. At the same time, this latest attack cannot be allowed to spread panic. We must refocus ourselves upon the serious new security challenges that face us in the knowledge that by remaining resolute we are denying victory to the terrorists.
