Insurgency in Saudi Arabia
Encyclopedia
Terrorism 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.
sent forces to Saudi Arabia in 1990 after Saddam Hussein
invaded Kuwait
. After the US-led coalition won the 1991 Gulf War
, it moved most of its forces from Saudi Arabia to bases elsewhere but several thousand, mostly associated with Operation Southern Watch
, remained. Since Saudi Arabia houses the holiest sites in Islam
— Mecca
(where the prophet Muhammed was born) and Medina
(where he is buried) — many Muslims were upset at the U.S. presence. It is believed this is one of, if not the main reason Osama bin Laden
called for jihad
against the United States
. Attacks against American forces and Westerners in the country were few until 1995.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks
, there was continued world pressure for the Saudi government to crack down on the radical imam
s preaching anti-American rhetoric in Saudi mosque
s. These calls grew as it turned out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials pledged to make efforts to crack down on these imams, yet preaching continued.
The following week on November 22, in Riyadh close to the RSAF
HQ, a car bomb detonated on a vehicle driven by British national Mark Payne. Although the driver and his three passengers were injured, all survived the attack.
Less than one month later on December 15 in Al Khobar, a small IED
in a juice carton left on the vehicle (in the parking lot of the Souks Supermarket - now Panda) of British national David Brown exploded as he attempted to remove it. Brown survived but lost his sight and part of his right hand.
A bomb placed in a waste bin outside the Jarir bookstore on Oleya Road in central Riyadh on March 15 injured British national Ron Jones. Jones, American Charles Bayar, and Canadian David Soni , all employees of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), were taken from hospital and arrested by Saudi authorities. During detention, Jones was subjected to torture to extract a 'confession' before being released without charge after 67 days. Soni was treated similarly, and released along with Jones. Unable to work due to their harsh treatment in detention, Jones and Soni left Saudi Arabia soon thereafter. Bayar was held in solitary confinement, was closely interrogated but not tortured, did not sign any confession, and was released after 11 days without charge after the U.S. State Department (through the behind-the-scenes efforts of Bayar's wife Julia, a former Washington DC lobbyist, which secured the intercession of Bayar's local U.S. congressman and U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a West Point classmate of Bayar's) issued a formal demarche to the Saudi Government demanding consular access to Bayar. He returned to work at SABIC but left Saudi Arabia without authorization in January 2002 to resume his law practice in New York.
On May 3, an American doctor Gary Hatch received injuries to his face and hands after opening a parcel bomb in his office in Al Khobar.
On the eve of the U.S. strike on Afghanistan on October 6, a pedestrian suicide bomber (who Saudi authorities claim to have been a Palestinian dentist) killed an 33 year old American employee of Halliburton from Duncan, Oklahoma: Michael Jerrald Martin, outside the popular Metropolitan Store (Mushiri Trading) in Al Khobar. An American co-worker, Keith Maples, was also injured, as well as one Briton and two Filipinos.
Early in 2001, video taped 'confessions' by William Sampson
and Sandy Mitchell
were aired on Saudi state TV channels. Apart from the confessions, which both men later retracted, there was no evidence to link any of the western detainees to the bombing campaign. Sampson and Mitchell were later sentenced to death but were eventually released (but not pardoned) along with several other British detainees in August 2003 in a prisoner exchange deal brokered by the UK and US for Saudi detainees from Guantanamo Bay
. Both men maintain their innocence, citing torture was used to extract 'confessions.' Court action taken in the UK by the men since their release failed after the UK High Court supported Saudi Arabia's defense under the State Immunity Act 1978
.
In their interrogation of suspects and in charges brought against detainees, the Saudi Mabahith
were wholly uninterested in alcohol trading and did not charge the men with alcohol offenses. Those charged with the murders were accused of carrying out the attacks on behalf of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service. Diplomats from the British Embassy in Riyadh were investigated by Scotland Yard
and cleared of any involvement. One of those investigated was Deputy Head of Mission in Riyadh, Simon McDonald, who was later appointed British Ambassador to Israel. Although British Embassy officials in Riyadh were aware of the continuing abuse of detainees, they failed to secure the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
in London in pushing hard for their release.
ese national attempted to shoot down a U.S. fighter jet taking off from the Prince Sultan Air Base
with an SA-7 missile. The attempt failed, and in June the Saudis arrested several suspects.
A month later on June 20, in the Riyadh suburb of Al Nakheel, a British national, Simon Veness, a 35 year old bank employee, was killed after a bomb placed underneath his vehicle exploded a few seconds after he set off for work.
On June 29, a car bomb placed on the vehicle of an American couple in Riyadh was disarmed by Saudi authorities.
On September 29, a car bomb killed German national Max Graf in central Riyadh.
was shot to death in his car while waiting at a traffic signal in the Granada district of Riyadh.
A Saudi was killed on March 18 in an explosion at a villa in the Al Jazira district of Riyadh where police uncovered a cache of arms and explosives. It is believed that he was manufacturing a bomb at the time.
At a house in the same district of Riyadh on May 6, police were involved in a shootout with suspected militants. All nineteen suspects escaped and police unearthed another large cache of arms and explosives.
The insurgency took a giant leap forward with the Riyadh Compound Bombings
; on May 12, attackers drove three car bombs into residential compounds housing Westerners and others, killing 26 people. Nine bombers also died. The compound bombings led to a harsh crackdown against militants by the Saudi government who until this point had been in denial about the terrorist threat within the Kingdom. Police and National Guard troops were involved in hundreds of raids, seizing weapons and equipment used by the militants. Throughout most of 2003, these helped in keeping the anti-foreigner attacks down.
On November 8, hours after the U.S. embassy issued a warning about attacks in Saudi Arabia, a truck bomb struck the al-Mohaya residential compound in Riyadh, killing 17 workers and injured more than 100. Most of the victims were Muslims, prompting outcry among Saudi citizens.
On May 1, the 2004 Yanbu attack
left six Westerners and a Saudi dead. The attackers were killed or captured.
On May 22, German
chef Hermann Dengl was shot to death in Riyadh at an automated teller machine
by Panda exit 10.
On May 29, the militants staged one of their most complex attacks, known as the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
. Gunmen scaled a fence of the Oasis compound, which houses the employees of foreign oil companies, and took dozens hostage. They are said to have separated Christian
s and Muslims and shot the Christians. Of those killed, 19 were foreign civilians; the rest were Saudis. The gunmen escaped.
On June 6, gunmen shot and killed an Irish cameraman of the BBC
, Simon Cumbers
, and also wounded reporter Frank Gardner
.
On June 8, American Robert Jacobs of Vinnell Corp. was shot in his Riyadh villa
.
Another American expatriate, Kenneth Scroggs, was shot to death by two gunmen outside his home in Riyadh on June 13, and an American working for Lockheed Martin
, Paul Marshall Johnson, was kidnapped at a fake police checkpoint in Riyadh.
On June 18, Johnson was reported beheaded in a video
released to the news media. On the same day, Saudi security forces killed Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, at that time the country's most wanted man.
On August 3, Anthony Higgins, an Irish
expatriate, was shot and killed at his desk at the Saudi-owned Rocky for Trade and Construction company, in the Al Rawda district of Riyadh. The attackers' use of silencers on the pistols led investigators to believe it was an act of premeditated murder and not simply an act terrorism aimed indiscriminately at the expatriate community. Tony, who had worked in the Kingdom for almost 25 years, had been an active member of Saudi Arabia's underground church and although unconfirmed, most who knew him, believe he was gunned down for his impassioned but indiscreet efforts to spread the Christian faith within Saudi Arabia.
On September 15, Edward Muirhead-Smith, a British man working for Marconi
, was shot to death in his car outside a supermarket in Riyadh.
On September 26, Frenchman
Laurent Barbot, an employee of a defense electronics firm, was shot to death in his car in Jeddah
.
On December 6, militants staged perhaps their most brazen attack, the storming of the American consulate in Jeddah. They breached the compound's outer wall and began shooting, though they did not enter the consulate itself. A Yemen
i, a Sudan
ese, a Filipino
, a Pakistan
i and a Sri Lanka
n—all employees of the consulate—were killed, and about ten others were wounded. All of the gunmen were killed.
On December 29, suicide car bombs exploded outside of the Saudi Interior Ministry and the Special Emergency Force
training center, killing a passerby and wounding several others. Though damage to each building was incurred, the attacks did not result in large-scale casualties, and was the last significant attack of the insurgency. Two suicide bombers were killed.
. One of these, Saleh al-Oufi, who was killed on August 18.
On December 28, Saudi security services killed Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi and Abdul Rahman ibn Salen Al-Miteb in separate incidents. In the morning, Al-Miteb was stopped by two policemen and opened fire, killing both. This set off a running firefight, during which three other policemen were killed. Automatic weapons, grenades, forged documents, and almost half a million riyals in cash were also seized.
Despite these successes, foreign governments still have travel warnings in effect for Saudi Arabia.
oil plant, the largest such facility in the world and producer of 60% of Saudi Arabian oil. Both cars exploded when fired upon by guards, killing the two bombers and two guards. A successful attack could have seriously crippled oil production.
In June, six militants and a policeman were killed in a gun battle in Riyadh.
while two Saudi citizens were arrested in Medinah. A-Turki went on to say, "We know of the group's activity as a whole but we also need to define the role of each of the arrested members." The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying, "Security forces, in the framework of their efforts to fight terrorism and its funding have arrested a group of suspects believed to be responsible for collecting donations illegally and smuggling the money to suspicious groups that use it in deceiving the sons of this nation and dragging them to disturbed areas."
In March, lawyers for some of the accused defended their clients by stating they were simply peaceful reformists. A petition was delivered to King Abdullah asking that he consider a constitutional monarchy, and was signed by 100 prominent business leaders and academics.
On February 26, suspected militants attacked a group of nine French
citizens who were returning from the historical site of Madain Saleh in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. The group, traveling in three vehicles had been looking for remnants of the Hejaz railway track and had apparently stopped for a rest approx 90 km north of Madinah when three assailants traveling in a 4x4 vehicle stopped then singled out and shot all four males in the group. Two died at the scene, a third en route to hospital and the fourth, a sixteen year old boy, died the following day after undergoing surgery to remove a bullet from his lung. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. On March 7, authorities announced the arrest of several suspects and stated that they were hunting two named individuals in connection with the attack.
On April 6, security forces were involved in a gunbattle with militants at a property 20 km outside Madinah. One of the militants, a Saudi national named as Waleed Ibn Mutlaq Al Radadi, was killed in the shootout. One police officer was also killed and several were injured. Al Radadi had appeared on a list of 36 most-wanted terrorists in 2005. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that the shootout was linked to an investigation into the killings of the French expatriates in February.
On April 19, Saudi authorities announced the arrest of eight people who had allegedly aided and abetted in the killings of the French expatriates in February. They also stated that Al Radadi had been the mastermind behind the killings.
On April 27, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 172 terrorist suspects in a series of raids on seven cells in the Kingdom in an operation lasting several months. The largest of the cells numbered 61 members. Unprecedented amounts of explosives and weapons of various types were uncovered after being buried in the desert. Also recovered was over $US5 million in cash. Some of the cells had trained as pilots and planned attacks on military and oil installations as well as the assassinations of high profile individuals. Most of the suspects were said to be Saudi nationals.
On November 28, security forces arrested 208 terrorist suspects across the country.
in 1975. The prince was treated at a hospital and released.
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
-based economy
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
—as well as Saudi civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995.
Background
The US militaryMilitary of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
sent forces to Saudi Arabia in 1990 after Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
invaded 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...
. After the US-led coalition won the 1991 Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, it moved most of its forces from Saudi Arabia to bases elsewhere but several thousand, mostly associated with Operation Southern Watch
Operation Southern Watch
Operation Southern Watch was an operation conducted by Joint Task Force Southwest Asia with the mission of monitoring and controlling airspace south of the 32nd Parallel in Iraq, following the 1991 Gulf War until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.-Summary:Operation Southern Watch began on 27 August 1992...
, remained. Since Saudi Arabia houses the holiest sites in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
— Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
(where the prophet Muhammed was born) and Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
(where he is buried) — many Muslims were upset at the U.S. presence. It is believed this is one of, if not the main reason Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
called for jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
against the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Attacks against American forces and Westerners in the country were few until 1995.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, there was continued world pressure for the Saudi government to crack down on the radical imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s preaching anti-American rhetoric in Saudi mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s. These calls grew as it turned out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials pledged to make efforts to crack down on these imams, yet preaching continued.
2000
On November 17, in central Riyadh at the junction of Oruba/Olaya road, a car bomb killed British national Christopher Rodway and injured his wife Jane. The bomb was placed underneath his vehicle and detonated as it approached a traffic signal.The following week on November 22, in Riyadh close to the RSAF
RSAF
The acronym RSAF may refer to:*Republic of Singapore Air Force*Royal Saudi Air Force*Royal Small Arms Factory...
HQ, a car bomb detonated on a vehicle driven by British national Mark Payne. Although the driver and his three passengers were injured, all survived the attack.
Less than one month later on December 15 in Al Khobar, a small IED
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
in a juice carton left on the vehicle (in the parking lot of the Souks Supermarket - now Panda) of British national David Brown exploded as he attempted to remove it. Brown survived but lost his sight and part of his right hand.
2001
On January 10, a small bomb exploded outside the Euromarche supermarket in Riyadh. There were no casualties.A bomb placed in a waste bin outside the Jarir bookstore on Oleya Road in central Riyadh on March 15 injured British national Ron Jones. Jones, American Charles Bayar, and Canadian David Soni , all employees of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), were taken from hospital and arrested by Saudi authorities. During detention, Jones was subjected to torture to extract a 'confession' before being released without charge after 67 days. Soni was treated similarly, and released along with Jones. Unable to work due to their harsh treatment in detention, Jones and Soni left Saudi Arabia soon thereafter. Bayar was held in solitary confinement, was closely interrogated but not tortured, did not sign any confession, and was released after 11 days without charge after the U.S. State Department (through the behind-the-scenes efforts of Bayar's wife Julia, a former Washington DC lobbyist, which secured the intercession of Bayar's local U.S. congressman and U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a West Point classmate of Bayar's) issued a formal demarche to the Saudi Government demanding consular access to Bayar. He returned to work at SABIC but left Saudi Arabia without authorization in January 2002 to resume his law practice in New York.
On May 3, an American doctor Gary Hatch received injuries to his face and hands after opening a parcel bomb in his office in Al Khobar.
On the eve of the U.S. strike on Afghanistan on October 6, a pedestrian suicide bomber (who Saudi authorities claim to have been a Palestinian dentist) killed an 33 year old American employee of Halliburton from Duncan, Oklahoma: Michael Jerrald Martin, outside the popular Metropolitan Store (Mushiri Trading) in Al Khobar. An American co-worker, Keith Maples, was also injured, as well as one Briton and two Filipinos.
U.K. citizen involvement
Publicly, the Saudi authorities blamed the car bombing campaign on a small group of western expatriates, mainly British, who they claimed were fighting a turf war over the illegal distribution of alcohol. All of those involved in the 'alcohol trade' were arrested and detained. Despite the arrests, the attacks on western nationals continued.Early in 2001, video taped 'confessions' by William Sampson
William Sampson (author)
William Sampson, born , is a dual British and Canadian national who was arrested in Saudi Arabia on December 17, 2000 on a variety of charges including terrorism, espionage and murder...
and Sandy Mitchell
Sandy Mitchell
Sandy Mitchell was one of seven men incarcerated in Saudi Arabia for the bombing death of Christopher Rodway, a British National living in Riyadh. While in prison, he was tortured and forced to make a televised confession in which he detailed the methods and as to which he and his fellow prisoners...
were aired on Saudi state TV channels. Apart from the confessions, which both men later retracted, there was no evidence to link any of the western detainees to the bombing campaign. Sampson and Mitchell were later sentenced to death but were eventually released (but not pardoned) along with several other British detainees in August 2003 in a prisoner exchange deal brokered by the UK and US for Saudi detainees from Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
. Both men maintain their innocence, citing torture was used to extract 'confessions.' Court action taken in the UK by the men since their release failed after the UK High Court supported Saudi Arabia's defense under the State Immunity Act 1978
State Immunity Act 1978
The State Immunity Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed to implement the European Convention on State Immunity of 1972 into British law...
.
In their interrogation of suspects and in charges brought against detainees, the Saudi Mabahith
Mabahith
The Mabahith , also spelled Mabaheth, is the secret police agency of the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia.According to Human Rights Watch, the Mabahith "monitors suspected political opponents and others, targets individuals for arrest, and interrogates detainees...
were wholly uninterested in alcohol trading and did not charge the men with alcohol offenses. Those charged with the murders were accused of carrying out the attacks on behalf of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service. Diplomats from the British Embassy in Riyadh were investigated by Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
and cleared of any involvement. One of those investigated was Deputy Head of Mission in Riyadh, Simon McDonald, who was later appointed British Ambassador to Israel. Although British Embassy officials in Riyadh were aware of the continuing abuse of detainees, they failed to secure the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
in London in pushing hard for their release.
2002
In May, a SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese national attempted to shoot down a U.S. fighter jet taking off from the Prince Sultan Air Base
Prince Sultan Air Base
Prince Sultan Air Base is an air base located at Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia.There was formerly a large United States presence there during Operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. presence was predominantly that of multiple U.S. Air Force flying units, augmented by a...
with an SA-7 missile. The attempt failed, and in June the Saudis arrested several suspects.
A month later on June 20, in the Riyadh suburb of Al Nakheel, a British national, Simon Veness, a 35 year old bank employee, was killed after a bomb placed underneath his vehicle exploded a few seconds after he set off for work.
On June 29, a car bomb placed on the vehicle of an American couple in Riyadh was disarmed by Saudi authorities.
On September 29, a car bomb killed German national Max Graf in central Riyadh.
2003
On February 20, Robert Dent, an employee for BAE SystemsBAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
was shot to death in his car while waiting at a traffic signal in the Granada district of Riyadh.
A Saudi was killed on March 18 in an explosion at a villa in the Al Jazira district of Riyadh where police uncovered a cache of arms and explosives. It is believed that he was manufacturing a bomb at the time.
At a house in the same district of Riyadh on May 6, police were involved in a shootout with suspected militants. All nineteen suspects escaped and police unearthed another large cache of arms and explosives.
The insurgency took a giant leap forward with the Riyadh Compound Bombings
Riyadh compound bombings
The 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...
; on May 12, attackers drove three car bombs into residential compounds housing Westerners and others, killing 26 people. Nine bombers also died. The compound bombings led to a harsh crackdown against militants by the Saudi government who until this point had been in denial about the terrorist threat within the Kingdom. Police and National Guard troops were involved in hundreds of raids, seizing weapons and equipment used by the militants. Throughout most of 2003, these helped in keeping the anti-foreigner attacks down.
On November 8, hours after the U.S. embassy issued a warning about attacks in Saudi Arabia, a truck bomb struck the al-Mohaya residential compound in Riyadh, killing 17 workers and injured more than 100. Most of the victims were Muslims, prompting outcry among Saudi citizens.
2004
After the Muhaya bombing, militants either halted or were prevented from committing their attacks. Security forces continued their raids and arrests. On April 21, a car bomb struck a building originally used by the Saudi police, killing five and injuring 148. This marked the start of a new campaign by the militants.On May 1, the 2004 Yanbu attack
2004 Yanbu attack
The 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...
left six Westerners and a Saudi dead. The attackers were killed or captured.
On May 22, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
chef Hermann Dengl was shot to death in Riyadh at an automated teller machine
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
by Panda exit 10.
On May 29, the militants staged one of their most complex attacks, known as the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres
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 building and the , and a foreign workers' housing complex, the , in the Gulf city of Khobar, Saudi...
. Gunmen scaled a fence of the Oasis compound, which houses the employees of foreign oil companies, and took dozens hostage. They are said to have separated Christian
Christian
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...
s and Muslims and shot the Christians. Of those killed, 19 were foreign civilians; the rest were Saudis. The gunmen escaped.
On June 6, gunmen shot and killed an Irish cameraman of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Simon Cumbers
Simon Cumbers
Simon Peter Cumbers was an Irish-born freelance journalist working for the BBC who was murdered by apparent Al Qaeda sympathisers while filming one of the terrorist group's safehouse in Saudi Arabia.-Career:...
, and also wounded reporter Frank Gardner
Frank Gardner (journalist)
Frank Rolleston Gardner OBE is an English journalist and correspondent. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent. He was appointed an OBE in 2005 for his services to journalism.-Background:...
.
On June 8, American Robert Jacobs of Vinnell Corp. was shot in his Riyadh villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
.
Another American expatriate, Kenneth Scroggs, was shot to death by two gunmen outside his home in Riyadh on June 13, and an American working for Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, Paul Marshall Johnson, was kidnapped at a fake police checkpoint in Riyadh.
On June 18, Johnson was reported beheaded in a video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
released to the news media. On the same day, Saudi security forces killed Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, at that time the country's most wanted man.
On August 3, Anthony Higgins, an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
expatriate, was shot and killed at his desk at the Saudi-owned Rocky for Trade and Construction company, in the Al Rawda district of Riyadh. The attackers' use of silencers on the pistols led investigators to believe it was an act of premeditated murder and not simply an act terrorism aimed indiscriminately at the expatriate community. Tony, who had worked in the Kingdom for almost 25 years, had been an active member of Saudi Arabia's underground church and although unconfirmed, most who knew him, believe he was gunned down for his impassioned but indiscreet efforts to spread the Christian faith within Saudi Arabia.
On September 15, Edward Muirhead-Smith, a British man working for Marconi
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
, was shot to death in his car outside a supermarket in Riyadh.
On September 26, Frenchman
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Laurent Barbot, an employee of a defense electronics firm, was shot to death in his car in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
.
On December 6, militants staged perhaps their most brazen attack, the storming of the American consulate in Jeddah. They breached the compound's outer wall and began shooting, though they did not enter the consulate itself. A Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i, a Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese, a Filipino
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...
, a Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i and a 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...
n—all employees of the consulate—were killed, and about ten others were wounded. All of the gunmen were killed.
On December 29, suicide car bombs exploded outside of the Saudi Interior Ministry and the Special Emergency Force
Special 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...
training center, killing a passerby and wounding several others. Though damage to each building was incurred, the attacks did not result in large-scale casualties, and was the last significant attack of the insurgency. Two suicide bombers were killed.
2005
Saudi security forces made a great deal of successes against insurgents. Many militants were captured and several killed, many by American forces in IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. One of these, Saleh al-Oufi, who was killed on August 18.
On December 28, Saudi security services killed Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi and Abdul Rahman ibn Salen Al-Miteb in separate incidents. In the morning, Al-Miteb was stopped by two policemen and opened fire, killing both. This set off a running firefight, during which three other policemen were killed. Automatic weapons, grenades, forged documents, and almost half a million riyals in cash were also seized.
Despite these successes, foreign governments still have travel warnings in effect for Saudi Arabia.
2006
While attacks by militants have decreased dramatically since late 2004, violent incidents still occasionally occur. On February 24, two explosive-laden cars tried to enter the AbqaiqAbqaiq
Abqaiq, or in Arabic Bqaiq , is a Saudi Aramco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. The camp was built in the 1940s by ARAMCO...
oil plant, the largest such facility in the world and producer of 60% of Saudi Arabian oil. Both cars exploded when fired upon by guards, killing the two bombers and two guards. A successful attack could have seriously crippled oil production.
In June, six militants and a policeman were killed in a gun battle in Riyadh.
2007
On February 4, Saudi security forces arrested ten people suspected of fundraising for "suspicious groups" outside of Saudi Arabia that engage in terrorism. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said seven Saudi citizens and one foreign resident were arrested in JeddahJeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
while two Saudi citizens were arrested in Medinah. A-Turki went on to say, "We know of the group's activity as a whole but we also need to define the role of each of the arrested members." The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying, "Security forces, in the framework of their efforts to fight terrorism and its funding have arrested a group of suspects believed to be responsible for collecting donations illegally and smuggling the money to suspicious groups that use it in deceiving the sons of this nation and dragging them to disturbed areas."
In March, lawyers for some of the accused defended their clients by stating they were simply peaceful reformists. A petition was delivered to King Abdullah asking that he consider a constitutional monarchy, and was signed by 100 prominent business leaders and academics.
On February 26, suspected militants attacked a group of nine French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
citizens who were returning from the historical site of Madain Saleh in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. The group, traveling in three vehicles had been looking for remnants of the Hejaz railway track and had apparently stopped for a rest approx 90 km north of Madinah when three assailants traveling in a 4x4 vehicle stopped then singled out and shot all four males in the group. Two died at the scene, a third en route to hospital and the fourth, a sixteen year old boy, died the following day after undergoing surgery to remove a bullet from his lung. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. On March 7, authorities announced the arrest of several suspects and stated that they were hunting two named individuals in connection with the attack.
On April 6, security forces were involved in a gunbattle with militants at a property 20 km outside Madinah. One of the militants, a Saudi national named as Waleed Ibn Mutlaq Al Radadi, was killed in the shootout. One police officer was also killed and several were injured. Al Radadi had appeared on a list of 36 most-wanted terrorists in 2005. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that the shootout was linked to an investigation into the killings of the French expatriates in February.
On April 19, Saudi authorities announced the arrest of eight people who had allegedly aided and abetted in the killings of the French expatriates in February. They also stated that Al Radadi had been the mastermind behind the killings.
On April 27, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 172 terrorist suspects in a series of raids on seven cells in the Kingdom in an operation lasting several months. The largest of the cells numbered 61 members. Unprecedented amounts of explosives and weapons of various types were uncovered after being buried in the desert. Also recovered was over $US5 million in cash. Some of the cells had trained as pilots and planned attacks on military and oil installations as well as the assassinations of high profile individuals. Most of the suspects were said to be Saudi nationals.
On November 28, security forces arrested 208 terrorist suspects across the country.
2009
On 28 August, A suicide bomber blew himself up in Jeddah during a Ramadan gathering that included Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, head of the security services. It was the first attempt on the life of a royal since the murder of King FaisalFaisal of Saudi Arabia
Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. As king, he is credited with rescuing the country's finances and implementing a policy of modernization and reform, while his main foreign policy themes were pan-Islamic Nationalism, anti-Communism, and pro-Palestinian...
in 1975. The prince was treated at a hospital and released.