JEDDAH, 3 May 2004 — Saturday’s shooting in Yanbu which targeted mainly Western expatriates came just a day after CBS aired graphic images of American soldiers defiling several Iraqi prisoners. This has led many to believe that the Yanbu attacks came in retaliation for US atrocities.
Many readers called Arab News to ask if any motive behind Saturday’s attacks had been given and whether any particular group had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Many felt this was a spontaneous, random attack by a band of young angry Saudis.
The rampage resulted in the murders of Britons Michael McGillan and Mike Hardy, 57-year-old Australian Antony Richard Mason, Texan Philip Coplen and one other American. Canadian Thomas Washburn was left paralyzed from a gunshot wound to the neck and another American is in intensive care.
The facts show that the attack was planned in advance. It required careful preparation which would have taken several days.
One witness told Arab News at the scene of one of Saturday’s shootouts that he recognized the Kia van used by some of the terrorists. He had seen it being sold for cash at a neighboring car lot a few days earlier.
At least two of the terrorists involved in the shootout outside the Holiday Inn drove through the checkpoint leading to the hotel and neighboring Arabian Homes in a stolen Coast Guard jeep. They also wore Coast Guard uniforms as disguise. Acquiring the uniforms and jeep must have taken some time well before the attacks.
The confirmation from the Interior Ministry that three of the terrorists had worked at the petrochemical complex and had used their passes to gain access to the ABB Lummus site and then opened an emergency gate to the fourth accomplice also gave rise to suggestions that they took the jobs with an attack in mind.
They certainly knew who they were targeting at ABB Lummus, a Texan subsidiary of Zurich-based company ABB. The terrorists targeted only expatriates.
They attacked the ABB Lummus office, but did they also have other Western targets in mind? There was the gunbattle outside the Arabian Homes compound by the Holiday Inn. One of those terrorists was later found to be wearing a suicide bomb belt. Was a suicide attack planned on either place?
No one yet has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But last week an audiotape from a man claiming to be Abdul Aziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin Al-Muqrin threatened “fierce” attacks on US interests in the country this year and warned Muslims to avoid American civilian as well as military sites.
Al-Muqrin is said to have taken over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom. Whether or not this was the work of Al-Qaeda remains to be seen, although there are reports that one of the dead was Abdullah Saud Abu Nayan Al-Subaie, No. 9 on the Kingdom’s most-wanted list. The Interior Ministry is reportedly doing DNA tests.
In a space of a few hours, havoc was wreaked all over Yanbu. The plan to hit ABB Lummus, the Holiday Inn, Arabian Homes, and the International School, either simultaneously or within the space of the same hour was coordinated and well thought out. It was not the overnight whim of a band of four terrorists.
