JEDDAH, 3 May 2004 — In the aftermath of Saturday’s terror attacks in Yanbu, security around the Royal Commission area has been dramatically increased. Residents report two-hour delays in queues resulting from checkpoints on access roads to the industrial area where five Westerners were gunned down.
Elsewhere in the city, however, opinion from the working and residential community is that there is little or no visible evidence of any step up in security.
Within ABB Lummus, the company that suffered the attack, there is still a sense of shock laced with decisiveness. A diplomatic source who had been in touch with the company reported the mood of the employees as “extremely frightened.”
“Those who want to leave have been told they may,” the source told Arab News. “The company seems to be very much in charge of the situation.” Asked if people would actually leave, the source was definitive; “Yes, people will leave.”
A British manager of a company in the light industrial area said that security looked normal. “I got the impression that nothing much has changed and the men I have working in the heavy industrial area confirmed this,” he said.
“Most of the British community have been here some time and are pretty robust and will bounce back,” he said. “However, the fact that we have seen friends killed — people we knew — is a bit close to home and puts a rather different complexion on the situation.”
He had learned that some American companies were sending families home “as an instruction, not an option.”
“It is an extremely sad situation,” he said, “but the British community’s view is that we will let the dust settle and then make our decisions.”
Security personnel in the residential areas were few and far between, said another British manager. “There was no increased security in evidence but the streets were unusually quiet. There were very few people about,” he said.
Shopping centers were still open, but most of the people on the street were Saudis.
In the Royal Commission administrative offices, security was increased, but only marginally. “No one was armed,” one source said. “The only difference was three or four guards were on duty rather than the usual pair.”
A long-term manager described the atmosphere as “calm. I wasn’t able to decide if it was just sleepy or an exercise in self-control.”
Residential areas and offices were alive with rumor, he said. “No one that I met or know had decided to leave — most have been here for a long time. They accept the situation, but with great sadness that this normally very quiet and peaceful community has been violated and that good people so viciously murdered.”
The International School that was affected by the attacks on Saturday, remained closed yesterday. The principal, Andrew Torris, told Arab News that decisions about reopening would be made on a day-to-day basis, based on the results of advice and assessments of the situation.
He said that the school had received feedback early Saturday morning “from the husband of an employee of the school that there was an incident occurring at his workplace.” The school was immediately closed, employees were notified and transportation for students was canceled before they were picked up at their homes.
“We have well-developed emergency procedures,” he said, “and we put them into action at once and closed the school. These children are at the center of our world and we will take no risks.”
Saturday’s casualty list includes 33 people, almost entirely Saudi citizens. They are reported to be progressing satisfactorily in hospital.
The Saudi community, say residents and expatriate employees of the major companies on the heavy industrial estate, are extremely upset and angry that expatriate workers who are in the Kingdom to work for Saudi Arabia have been targeted.
But life in the residential area is returning to normal. One British wife told Arab News that although most people had stayed indoors yesterday, toward sunset they were seen walking again on the streets of the residential area.
She and her husband walked to a newly opened chicken-and-rice restaurant immediately beside the McDonald’s restaurant that was hit during Saturday’s rampage. “It was packed,” she said. “Quite literally people were queuing out of the door, in contrast to the McDonald’s, which was entirely empty.”
