JEDDAH, 6 May 2004 — A memorial service is to take place today in Houston for the Westerners murdered in Yanbu on Saturday by terrorists.

Details on four of the five have been disclosed by Texas-based ABB Lummus Global, with whom they worked. The oldest, aged 62, was Steve LaGuardia, a US citizen. He had worked with ABB for 24 years. He was the construction manager for the Yanpet project, for which ABB acted as contractor. He was married with children.

Anthony Richard Mason (Tony), 57, an Australian from Booragoon, Western Australia, worked for ABB for three years. He was married and leaves behind a wife and child. He was the construction director for the Yanpet project.

Mike Hardy, also 57, was British, from Kent. He was a quantity surveyor for the project and had been hired specifically by ABB for the Yanpet project and was a relative newcomer to the ABB family. He was married.

Phil Coplen, 54, an American citizen, was with ABB for 13 years. He resided with his family in Houston. He leaves behind a wife, a son and a daughter. He was the administration manager for the Yanpet project.

The other slain Westerner, Briton Michael McGillen, 52, a chemical engineer from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was employed by a subcontractor of ABB.

The two ABB employees injured were Arturo Carrasco, 41, a process engineer working on the project, and Canadian Thomas Washburn, 40, who has been with ABB for more than five years.

Arturo is expected to be released from the hospital shortly. However, Washburn remains hospitalized in critical condition, having been shot in the neck. He may be paralyzed for life. He was the project manager at the site.

ABB Lummus Global has denied reports that any of the terrorists in Yanbu were its employees. “We would like to correct previous erroneous reports, which have surfaced globally, stating that the attackers were employees of ABB Lummus Global,” spokesperson Patti McDonald said.

“The men who have been identified as being responsible for the deadly attack were allegedly employees of Yanpet, a joint venture of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation and ExxonMobil,” she said.

Yanpet is the owner and operator of the petrochemical facility where the deadly assault took place.

Meanwhile, Yanbu International School (YIS), also known as the American School, will reopen on Saturday. The school announced its temporary closure after the killing spree.

The school was the only one that suspended its activities following the attack by terrorists on ABB Lummus offices.

Other schools in Yanbu continued to function normally, but YIS was the only school directly affected by the incident. During the rampage, the terrorists fired shots outside its gates and threw a pipebomb in the vicinity. Fortunately, it failed to detonate fully.

Although YIS is an American school, its 380 students are predominantly Asian. An American teacher is the only one from the school staff to have left two days ago. “She has not left because of the attack, but had been planning to leave for quite some time,” a school source said.