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Australian dies in terror attack
From correspondents in Riyadh
May 2, 2004

AT least one Australian has been killed after gunmen entered the office of an oil contractor in Saudi Arabia and began shooting at random, in what a Saudi official called an "indiscriminate evil rampage".

Two American engineers, two Britons, and a Saudi also died, and there were reports this morning of a second Australian death.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed the death of one Australian overnight and named the victim as Anthony Richard Mason, 57, from Western Australia.

An Associated Press report today cited an unnamed European diplomat as saying a second Australian died, but no further details were given.

DFAT said this morning it had no information about a second death, but an update on the incident was expected in the next few hours.

A spokeswoman said the Australian embassy in Riyadh was in touch with Mr Mason's widow in Saudi Arabia and was providing her with consular assistance.

"The Australian consul will also travel to Yanbu (the scene of the shooting) tomorrow."

Mr Mason's relatives in Western Australia had been contacted by DFAT officials, she said.

The fleeing gunmen led police on a chase through the north-west Saudi city of Yanbu, exchanging fire outside a Holiday Inn before police caught up with them in a shootout, a witness said.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said three attackers were killed and one was captured.

There was no immediate word on who was behind the shooting, but US officials had warned in recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, an important US ally.

The attack began at a petrochemical plant co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC.

"Four individuals entered the offices of a Saudi contractor and randomly shot at Saudi and foreign employees," the Interior Ministry said.

The assailants fled into residential neighbourhoods of Yanbu, 900km west of Riyadh, and commandeered cars, "but security forces were able to kill three of them and injure and capture the fourth", the ministry said.

A witness said a gunbattle erupted during the chase outside the Holiday Inn hotel, and the gunmen fled to downtown Yanbu before police caught up with them.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, offered condolences to the families of those killed.

"We will not be discouraged by this brutal incident in which innocent lives were lost - British, American and Australian as well as Saudi Arabian - and many people injured in an indiscriminate evil rampage," he said in London.

The US State Department confirmed the American deaths.

ABB-Lummus, the energy arm of multinational engineering company ABB, said both were engineers for the company.

A British ABB employee, a British contractor and an Australian employee were also killed, spokesman Bjorn Edlund said from Zurich, Switzerland.

Two American ABB-Lummus employees were wounded in the attack, one critically, he said. He was not sure how many others were wounded.

Mr Edlund said ABB employed hundreds of expatriates in Saudi Arabia and more than 50 Americans in Yanbu alone.

"It is obviously an enormous blow. Losing five employees in a terrorist attack is a terrible, terrible thing to happen.

"We are trying to deal with it as best as we can."

European diplomats said a member of the Saudi national guard was also killed.

A Saudi police captain was seriously wounded, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

A Canadian diplomat in Riyadh said two Canadian citizens needed hospital treatment, but the diplomat had no details on their condition.

In Texas, Exxon Mobil spokesman Tom Cirigliano confirmed the company co-owns a petrochemical facility in Yandu, but said he had no information about the attack. He said the facility was operating normally and that no Exxon Mobil employees were hurt.

"We abhor any violent attacks like this," he said.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on six million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil industry and other sectors.

The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi Arabia was in May 2003, when eight Americans were among 34 people killed in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings in the capital, Riyadh.

That attack and a November assault on a housing compound that killed 17 people were blamed on the al-Qaeda terror network.

Last month, the United States ordered the departure of non-essential US government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia and also urged private citizens to depart. The embassy had warned of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia".

The May 2003 housing compound attack was seen as a wake-up call to Saudis of the dangers of Islamic militants at home. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was born and raised in the kingdom, but expelled in 1994 for agitating against the monarchy.

Saudi security forces have been hunting Islamic militants, resulting in frequent deadly clashes in recent months.