Hostages rescued in Al Khobar: Stand off ends; toll 22
By Syed Rashid Husain
AL KHOBAR, May 30: Twenty-two people, most of them foreign civilians, were killed in attacks here by armed militants, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday evening.
It said that 25 people of various nationalities suffered injuries.
The standoff between the militants and security forces which began on Saturday evening, finally came to an end on Sunday morning, when special forces personnel stormed a building and rescued the hostages and others trapped in the premises.
Among the dead are eight Indian nationals, two Sri Lankans, an American, an Italian, a Briton, three Saudis, three Filipinos, a Swede, a South African and an Egyptian boy of 10. An earlier report saying that a Pakistani had been shot dead has been denied.
Forty-one foreigners taken hostage were rescued after the special forces stormed the Al Oasis hotel and residential compound early Sunday morning. The militants were holed up in the compound along with hostages since Saturday. Another 201 people were also rescued from the place.
Three of the assailants are reported to have escaped, while their leader has been captured by the storming forces. The captured gunman is reported to have been on the list of wanted terrorists. However, the name has not been disclosed.
The number of casualties among the security forces has been announced, but some sources put it at least seven. The hostage drama ended at around 8am in the morning. About three dozen security personnel were seen landing on the rooftop of the Oasis Compound where the gunmen had taken the civilians hostage. They landed there at dawn and it took them roughly three hours to complete the job.
The rescued hostages were later taken to the nearby Al Gosaibi Hotel. Some of them requiring medical treatment were taken to hospitals in the city. The authorities here, meanwhile, have denied a report appearing in a Kuwaiti newspaper that US marines had taken part in the storming of the compound. They termed this completely baseless.
AFP adds: Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks and hostage-taking in a statement posted on an Islamist website and whose authenticity could not be verified. Forty-one Americans, 10 Dutch, 20 Britons, four French, eight Japanese, eight Jordanians, 10 Lebanese and 80 Asians were among those evacuated from the villas.
The gunmen had slit the throats of seven Asians, a Swede and an Italian. The ministry statement said the assailants had tried in vain to enter The Oasis compound with a car bomb, after which they managed to climb over the walls into the sprawling residential area. The weekend attacks were the latest in a wave of terror which has swept Saudi Arabia in the past year, leaving some 65 people dead and hundreds wounded.
