29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
Encyclopedia
In the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia
, seventeen terrorists, members of the The Jerusalem Squadron, attacked third country national
personnel of two oil industry installations, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation building and the Petroleum Centre, and a foreign worker
s' housing complex, the Oasis Compound, in the Gulf city of Khobar
, Saudi Arabia.
, three from the Philippines
, two from Sri Lanka
, one each from Sweden
, Italy
, England
, the United States
, South Africa
and Egypt
.
or Muslim
, letting the Muslims go, and slitting the throats of non-Muslims.
A previously unheard-of militant group calling itself "The Jerusalem Squadron" -- a local Saudi Arabia-based faction of al-Qaeda
-- claimed responsibility and said it was attacking "Zionists and Crusaders" who are in Saudi Arabia to "steal our oil and resources". An audio tape was released in which Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, thought to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Saudi Arabia, took responsibility. On the tape he said "among the killed was a Japanese [sic] who was slaughtered because USA have mixed his tribe into the war against Muslims."
According to the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan
, the goal of the terrorists was to shake Saudi Arabia's stability and economy.
Michael Hamilton, British, a leading member of the Apicorp Corporation, who had just dropped his wife off, arrived at the gate. His car was shot at and the gunmen dragged him out of the car still alive and tied him to the back of their four-wheel-drive vehicle, driving up the Raka road to the Dammam highway. Hamilton's facial features were unrecognizable when his body and car were later found dumped under a causeway. The terrorist vehicle with Hamilton tied behind made it as far as the intersection lights before a Saudi civilian rammed their car off the road. The terrorist shot the Saudi dead before he could get out of his car. The police shot the terrorists before they could make their escape.
The terrorists then drove into the main compound area. A security guard then got the children off the schoolbus and conducted them to a safe area in the compound.
They then exited their vehicle and moved on foot into the residential complex. They kicked in the doors and slit the throats of any non-Muslims they could find. Among those murdered were an Italian cook, Antonio Amato (35), and a Swedish maître d', Magnus Johansson (50), both of whom had taken jobs in Saudi Arabia for the higher pay. Both were beheaded. The terrorists killed one American—Frank Floyd, an assistant marketing director for Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd. Most of the killings took place inside the compound's Italian restaurant, Casa Mia, where Amato and Johansson worked. According to an account by terrorist Fawaz al-Nashimi
, captives were also executed with bullets to the head.
In the morning, the terrorists ate breakfast in the restaurant. They then returned to the first floor with the intention of killing Hindu
s. Eight Indians were killed. Al-Nashmi lists 3 cohorts, Nimr al-Baqmi, Husayn, and Nadir.
Then they took 54 hostages and put them on the sixth floor of the Soha Towers Hotel in the far east of the compound, attached to the Soha Oasis. Booby-traps were placed at the exits. Al-Nashmi and two cohorts then escaped over the wall and stole a car to make a getaway. This was despite the compound being surrounded by soldiers and reporters with live television. "We were now on a road with trees shadowing the way, and all the security forces thought we were still in the hotel," Nashmi wrote. Nimr al-Baqmi was wounded while firing out of his vehicle, and was captured.
s had surrounded the complex and extracted the school bus children who were hiding in an underground parking garage. A few British nursery workers were rescued from the Oasis compound, and were returned to the Las Dunas compound, where their families and friends had been waiting.
At 0200 the next morning Saudi Special Emergency Forces attempted to enter the booby-trapped hotel. Several were injured in two explosions, and the group pulled back after receiving threats from the remaining terrorists to kill the hostages. At 0230 two American military officers were injured and subsequently admitted to SAAD Specialist hospital and later flown out to Kuwait
.
Two British C130s landed at Dhahran military airbase at 0400 and according to the British ambassador, members of SO12 provided "logistical" support to the Saudi Forces.
Saudi forces in four National Guard Kawasaki KC113
helicopters arrived at 0630 and were lowered onto the roof of the Soha Hotel to storm the building, while ground attackers fired into the building as a diversion. Following the operation, Saudi authorities announced that all the hostages were free and that they had killed two terrorists and captured another. Apparently, most of the attackers had fled before the Saudi raid.
International Indian School (IIS) Dammam is a school about 30 minutes away in Dammam. Several of their students lived in the Dhahran/Khobar area. The school was on lockdown until it was time for school to dismiss, with many of the kids not knowing what was happening. "I personally saw several humvees driving to Oasis on the other side of the road as i pulled into Rolaco in my schoolbus. Apache helicopters were flying in the sky, and I didnt know what was going on until i got home." said Sami Patel.
and lived on Saudi Aramco's Dhahran
compound nearby, decided to stay in the area.
World oil prices soared to $42 a barrel after the attack.
Several of the nearby compounds like al Mohawis, Rolaco, TIG, al Bustan, and others had around 3-6 Saudi army soldiers stationed at the gates checking each car thoroughly prior to allowing them in(including residents). Security at Oasis was hyped to the point where there was a lane out of each of the surrounding streets that was taken and dedicated to security lines. Each lane was blocked from the road by barricades, and eyewitnesses describe it as pretty much impenetrable. There were several stages of army protection including thorough checkups. Each army personnel was armed with machine guns.
Several schools shut down a few weeks early including ISG schools like Dhahran Academy and ISG Dammam.
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, seventeen terrorists, members of the The Jerusalem Squadron, attacked third country national
Third Country National
Third Country National is a term often used in the context of migration, referring to individuals who are in transit and/or applying for visas in countries that are not their country of origin , in order to go to destination countries that is likewise not their country of origin...
personnel of two oil industry installations, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation building and the Petroleum Centre, and a foreign worker
Foreign worker
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. The term migrant worker as discussed in the migrant worker page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker"...
s' housing complex, the Oasis Compound, in the Gulf city of Khobar
Khobar
Khobar is a large city located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf. It has a population of 360,000 and forms part of the greater Dammam metropolitan area along with Dhahran, which together have a combined population of over two million...
, Saudi Arabia.
Casualties and survivors
| Country | Deaths |
|---|---|
 India |
8 |
 Philippines |
3 |
 Saudi Arabia |
3 |
 Sri Lanka |
2 |
 Egypt |
1 |
 Italy |
1 |
 South Africa |
1 |
 Sweden |
1 |
| United Kingdom | 1 |
 United States |
1 |
| Total | 22 |
Among victims
After a 25-hour siege, 41 hostages were freed, 25 were injured and 22 were killed, among them 19 foreigners from nine countries. The nationalities of those killed included eight people from IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, three from the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, two from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, one each from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Among perpetrators
14 attackers were captured or killed, and 3 escaped. Some accounts of the attack suppose that Saudi security forces facilitated the perpetrators' escape, given that it was broad daylight and the Oasis compound was surrounded by hundreds of armed soldiers, police officers, and reporters at the time the terrorists managed to escape.Intended targets, motivation and attribution for the attack
Kidnappers asked the hostages if they were ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
or Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, letting the Muslims go, and slitting the throats of non-Muslims.
A previously unheard-of militant group calling itself "The Jerusalem Squadron" -- a local Saudi Arabia-based faction of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
-- claimed responsibility and said it was attacking "Zionists and Crusaders" who are in Saudi Arabia to "steal our oil and resources". An audio tape was released in which Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, thought to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Saudi Arabia, took responsibility. On the tape he said "among the killed was a Japanese [sic] who was slaughtered because USA have mixed his tribe into the war against Muslims."
According to the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan
Bandar bin Sultan
Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is a prince of the Saudi royal family and was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He was appointed Secretary-General of the National Security Council by King Abdullah on 16 October 2005...
, the goal of the terrorists was to shake Saudi Arabia's stability and economy.
Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre
At 0645 a group of four terrorists, separate from the group that attacked the Oasis compound, arrive in a vehicle and shoot at guards and employees around the front gate of the Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre, which is next to the DHL building on the main Doha to Khobar road. An American and two Filipinos protecting the American were killed. Police arrived and killed the two gunmen while a third was killed running from the building. A fourth escaped over a wall and into the Al Hada compound. He made his way up to the Holiday Inn and fired at it, causing no casualties, before hijacking a car.Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation Building
At 0715 terrorists in a vehicle attacked the Apicorp Compound. The compound is a quarter`of a mile away down the Khobar Dammam highway next to Raka compound. They used an RPG on the gatehouse and killed two security guards. A school bus was coming out at the time and was shot at, killing a 10-year old Egyptian boy who was the son of an Apicorp employee.Michael Hamilton, British, a leading member of the Apicorp Corporation, who had just dropped his wife off, arrived at the gate. His car was shot at and the gunmen dragged him out of the car still alive and tied him to the back of their four-wheel-drive vehicle, driving up the Raka road to the Dammam highway. Hamilton's facial features were unrecognizable when his body and car were later found dumped under a causeway. The terrorist vehicle with Hamilton tied behind made it as far as the intersection lights before a Saudi civilian rammed their car off the road. The terrorist shot the Saudi dead before he could get out of his car. The police shot the terrorists before they could make their escape.
Oasis 3 Compound
At 0730 six terrorists scaled the walls of Oasis 3 compound. Another five drove up to the main Vehicle Check Point. A civilian car was in front of the attackers and a school bus behind in the queue. The checkpoint had two closed gates. A car drove through one gate, was inspected after the first gate closed, and then the second gate opened to let the car through. On the morning of the attack, the second was continuously open, so when the first gate opened, the terrorists drove straight through the second gate. While doing so, a terrorist opened the sunroof of their vehicle and killed the two armed guards with a machine gun. Turning back, he fired on the school bus, killing two children and wounding four children. A 5-year-old and 7-year-old child were critically wounded.The terrorists then drove into the main compound area. A security guard then got the children off the schoolbus and conducted them to a safe area in the compound.
They then exited their vehicle and moved on foot into the residential complex. They kicked in the doors and slit the throats of any non-Muslims they could find. Among those murdered were an Italian cook, Antonio Amato (35), and a Swedish maître d', Magnus Johansson (50), both of whom had taken jobs in Saudi Arabia for the higher pay. Both were beheaded. The terrorists killed one American—Frank Floyd, an assistant marketing director for Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd. Most of the killings took place inside the compound's Italian restaurant, Casa Mia, where Amato and Johansson worked. According to an account by terrorist Fawaz al-Nashimi
Fawaz al-Nashimi
Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Nashimi , also known as Turki bin Fuheid al-Muteiry, was a member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and was identified by the group as the 20th hijacker of the September 11th attacks. Born in Saudi Arabia, Nashimi participated in the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres and...
, captives were also executed with bullets to the head.
In the morning, the terrorists ate breakfast in the restaurant. They then returned to the first floor with the intention of killing Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s. Eight Indians were killed. Al-Nashmi lists 3 cohorts, Nimr al-Baqmi, Husayn, and Nadir.
Then they took 54 hostages and put them on the sixth floor of the Soha Towers Hotel in the far east of the compound, attached to the Soha Oasis. Booby-traps were placed at the exits. Al-Nashmi and two cohorts then escaped over the wall and stole a car to make a getaway. This was despite the compound being surrounded by soldiers and reporters with live television. "We were now on a road with trees shadowing the way, and all the security forces thought we were still in the hotel," Nashmi wrote. Nimr al-Baqmi was wounded while firing out of his vehicle, and was captured.
Rescue operation
By 2130 Saudi Special Emergency ForceSpecial Emergency Force
The Emergency Force is a special operations counter-terrorism unit of the Saudi Arabian General Security. Similar units include the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and the French GIGN...
s had surrounded the complex and extracted the school bus children who were hiding in an underground parking garage. A few British nursery workers were rescued from the Oasis compound, and were returned to the Las Dunas compound, where their families and friends had been waiting.
At 0200 the next morning Saudi Special Emergency Forces attempted to enter the booby-trapped hotel. Several were injured in two explosions, and the group pulled back after receiving threats from the remaining terrorists to kill the hostages. At 0230 two American military officers were injured and subsequently admitted to SAAD Specialist hospital and later flown out to Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
.
Two British C130s landed at Dhahran military airbase at 0400 and according to the British ambassador, members of SO12 provided "logistical" support to the Saudi Forces.
Saudi forces in four National Guard Kawasaki KC113
CH-46 Sea Knight
The Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight is a medium-lift tandem rotor transport helicopter, used by the United States Marine Corps to provide all-weather, day-or-night assault transport of combat troops, supplies and equipment. Assault Support is its primary function, and the movement of supplies and...
helicopters arrived at 0630 and were lowered onto the roof of the Soha Hotel to storm the building, while ground attackers fired into the building as a diversion. Following the operation, Saudi authorities announced that all the hostages were free and that they had killed two terrorists and captured another. Apparently, most of the attackers had fled before the Saudi raid.
Downtown Khobar
During the same day, shooting broke out in downtown Khobar, about twenty minutes away from the Oasis 3 compound. A vehicle was reported to be driving around the Khobar area with four armed men on board. They proceeded to kill and injure another 11 security and military personnel located at approximately five other compounds with one being confirmed as the Golden Belt.Emergency response in schools away from attack sites
The British and American schools around Khobar and Dhahran were put on lock-down during the terror attacks. In Dhahran, British Grammar School and the Dhahran Elementary and Middle as well as High School (all on the same campus next to the American consulate), children were not released from school until over an hour after the usual time.International Indian School (IIS) Dammam is a school about 30 minutes away in Dammam. Several of their students lived in the Dhahran/Khobar area. The school was on lockdown until it was time for school to dismiss, with many of the kids not knowing what was happening. "I personally saw several humvees driving to Oasis on the other side of the road as i pulled into Rolaco in my schoolbus. Apache helicopters were flying in the sky, and I didnt know what was going on until i got home." said Sami Patel.
Aftermath of the attacks
Following the attacks, some foreign workers either fled the country or were evacuated by the companies they worked for, as they felt it was too dangerous to stay. Several thousand other Americans and other Westerners, notably those who worked for Saudi AramcoSaudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco , officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Saudi Aramco is the world's largest and most valuable privately-held company, with estimates of its value in 2011 to be $7 trillion USD.Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves,...
and lived on Saudi Aramco's Dhahran
Dhahran
Dhahran is a city located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
compound nearby, decided to stay in the area.
World oil prices soared to $42 a barrel after the attack.
Several of the nearby compounds like al Mohawis, Rolaco, TIG, al Bustan, and others had around 3-6 Saudi army soldiers stationed at the gates checking each car thoroughly prior to allowing them in(including residents). Security at Oasis was hyped to the point where there was a lane out of each of the surrounding streets that was taken and dedicated to security lines. Each lane was blocked from the road by barricades, and eyewitnesses describe it as pretty much impenetrable. There were several stages of army protection including thorough checkups. Each army personnel was armed with machine guns.
Several schools shut down a few weeks early including ISG schools like Dhahran Academy and ISG Dammam.
See also
- Insurgency in Saudi ArabiaInsurgency in Saudi ArabiaTerrorism in Saudi Arabia is unleashed by radical Islamic fighters. Their targets include foreign civilians—mainly Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995.-Background:The...
- Khobar Towers BombingKhobar Towers bombingThe Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996, Khobar Towers was being used to house foreign military personnel.Al-Qaeda has incorrectly been described by...
- Riyadh Compound BombingsRiyadh compound bombingsThe Riyadh compound bombings took place on May 12, 2003, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Altogether, 35 people were killed, and over 160 wounded. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had started in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in...
- 2004 Yanbu attack2004 Yanbu attackThe 2004 Yanbu attack was an attack by gunmen against Westerners on May 1, 2004, in Yanbu' al Bahr, Saudi Arabia.At least four militants used security passes to access a local petrochemical plant. Once on the grounds of the facility, they stormed the offices of the Texas-based ABB Lummus and killed...
External links
- http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=871&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=181&no_cache=1"Lessons from al-Qaeda's Attack on the Khobar Compound", by Abdul Hameed Bakier, August 11, 2006, The Jamestown FoundationThe Jamestown FoundationThe Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based institute for research and analysis, founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet dissidents. Today its stated mission is to "inform and educate" policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current "strategic"...
] - "Saudis storm besieged compound" on CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, 2004-5-30 - http://slate.msn.com/id/2102487/"Al-Qaida's Next Action HeroAn insider account of the Khobar assault", by Daniel Kimmage, June 16, 2004, Slate (magazine)Slate (magazine)Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
]