Fierce gun battle follows car bomb attack on US consulate
A car bomb exploded outside the heavily-guarded US consulate in the Saudi port city of Jeddah today, injuring several people. Hostages were understood to be held inside as a gunbattle raged in the latest strike against Western targets in the kingdom.
Saudi security forces confirmed they believed there were hostages being held inside US consulate, but said numbers were unknown.
Four attackers remained in the compound where a gunbattle continued more than an hour after the initial blast, according to other Saudi security forces.
Local residents said they saw Saudi forces enter the consulate shortly before a fierce gun battle was heard inside the consulate, located in the city’s heart near the Red Sea coastline.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman confirmed there was an “on-going situation” in Jeddah, but said she was not aware of any American casualties or any hostages. She said there were few details yet about the incident.
A Saudi health official said several people injured in the blast were taken to a hospital in Jeddah. None were Americans, the official said.
Saudi officials had no immediate comment on the blast and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Saudi officials have blamed al-Qaida operatives for the string of attacks that have hit the kingdom in the past two years.
Saudi security forces, including snipers, could be seen on the rooftops of buildings around the consulate compound. Thick smoke rose from the compound and helicopters hovered overhead.
Al-Arabiya satellite television and a witness at the scene reported that four attackers tried to storm the compound in a car, but that the car exploded in front instead. The attackers were believed to be carrying machine guns and hand grenades thought to have started a fire inside the compound that was extinguished by helicopter, al-Arabiya reported.
“We can confirm there has been an attack on the consulate,” said US Embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin in Riyadh, said. “No reports of any American casualties. The incident is still in progress with Saudi emergency forces securing the compound.”
One witness near the scene said smoke was rising from the area and said police were keeping cars and traffic from the area. Other witnesses said gunfire was heard just before the blast.
“As a precaution, we closed our embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Dhahran to the public,” Kalin said.
Khaled al-Maeena, the editor of Arab News located in Jeddah, also said thick smoke was visible from the consulate area and helicopters were flying overhead.
Four men apparently tried to enter the compound, al-Maeena said. They apparently exploded a car in front of the gate.
“The magnitude of this assault on the consulate has taken all Jeddah residents by surprise,” he said.
The consulate is located in the heart of the city, just a half-mile from the city’s Red Sea coastal road.
The building – like all US diplomatic buildings and other Western compounds in Saudi Arabia – has been heavily fortified and guarded since last year’s series of bombings against targets housing foreigners.
The attack was the latest in a series of attacks against Westerners since 2003, when car bombs targeted three compounds housing foreign workers in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine suicide bombers. Later that year, a suicide car bomb killed 17 people and wounded 122 at a compound for foreign workers in Riyadh.
Last May, 22 people were killed, including 19 foreigners, by militants who took over a resort complex in Khobar and held hostages for 25 hours. In another attack that month, militants stormed offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global in Yanbu, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. All four attackers in Yanbu died in a shoot-out after an hour-long police chase in which they dragged the body of an American from the bumper of their car.
In June, militants in Riyadh kidnapped and beheaded Paul Johnson, an engineer for a US defence company.
