JEDDAH, 8 December 2004 — Saudi authorities yesterday named the slain gunmen who stormed the US Consulate here on Monday. The daylight assault on the heavily fortified consulate claimed at least nine lives, including five consulate staff and four militants.
The Saudi branch of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the attack in a website statement as apparent revenge for the US-led assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah last month.
US President George W. Bush said the attack showed that terrorists were still at large in the Kingdom and the Saudi government vowed there would be no letup in its fight against terrorism.
An Internet statement signed by the “Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula” claimed the attack in the name of the “martyr” Abu Anas Al-Shami, a top aide to Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. Al-Shami was reportedly killed near Baghdad earlier this year.
“This operation is one of the series of operations carried out by the Al-Qaeda organization in their war against the crusaders and the Jews to chase the infidels out of the Arabian Peninsula,” the group said.
Gunmen fought their way into the consulate triggering a three-hour siege and shootout in the first such attack on a diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia.
The consulate remained closed yesterday and the US flag was flying at half-mast behind a four-meter barricade.
The Interior Ministry said five members of a “deviant group” — its term for Al-Qaeda sympathizers — hurled bombs as a diplomatic vehicle was driving into the compound, then torched one of the buildings and attacked people on the site.
Security forces rushed to the scene and besieged the assailants, killing three and wounding the two others, one of whom later died in hospital, it said.
The ministry identified three of the slain gunmen as Fayez ibn Awwad Al-Jeheni, Eid ibn Dakhilallah Al-Jeheni and Hassan ibn Hamed Al-Hazmi, none of whom was on a most-wanted list of suspected Al-Qaeda sympathizers issued by authorities a year ago.
“The identity of the fourth, who is wounded, must not be divulged for the sake of public interest, and procedures are under way to establish the identity of the fifth person, who died in the incident,” a statement said, adding that all four identified were Saudis.
Prince Miteb ibn Abdullah, assistant commander for military affairs of the National Guard, yesterday visited the injured victims of the attack, both military and civilian, at King Fahd Hospital, National Guard Hospital and the private Soliman Fakeeh Hospital.
Addressing reporters, he mentioned President Bush’s phone call to Crown Prince Abdullah commending the collaboration and unity of the different Saudi military units in fighting the terrorists during the attack. Saudi Public Security, the army, and the National Guard joined hands in overpowering the terrorists and containing the situation, he said.
Bush’s statement was in response to accusations that different Saudi military forces were fragmented and not synchronizing their operations with each other.
Asked about the number of security personnel killed, he said that there was no death at all. “There weren’t any dead among the Saudi forces,” he asserted when it was pointed out that satellite channels had mentioned deaths among the security forces.
The prince had met with American officials at the US Consulate before his hospital visits. He requested them that the location of the US Consulate be changed because of its dangerous position in terms of vulnerable security, surrounded as it is by four main thoroughfares.
American officials told him that they would consider the request.
Prince Miteb said that the consulate’s security was penetrated and breached by terrorists because there was only one gate instead of a multilayered gateway.
US officials said all Americans at the consulate were safe and accounted for, but five non-American employees and contract workers were killed and another four wounded.
An Indian, a Yemeni, a Sudanese, a Palestinian and a Sri Lankan were killed.
— Additional input from agencies
