Ambassor tells Americans to go home

Saudi Arabia’s US ambassador told Americans in the oil-rich city of Yanbu: “Go home. We cannot protect you”, following the terror attack that killed six foreign workers.

Huddled in a meeting room in a Holiday Inn still pocked with bullet holes from the terrorist attack, many said they would heed his words.

The first to go were among the 90 foreign employees of ABB Lummus Global, a Houston-based oil contractor whose offices were attacked on Saturday by four gunmen trying to encourage Saudis to join the resistance against the US occupation of Iraq.

The interior minister said that the attack appeared to have been carried out by al-Qaida. Arriving in Kuwait City for a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council, Prince Nayef was asked whether Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network was responsible.

“Yes, but we need time to confirm this,” he said.

The first ABB employees – all Europeans – boarded a van for Yanbu airport last night.

“Money is money, but it’s not worth your life,” said Italian Armando Rosiglioni, 63, of Venice, who arrived in Yanbu 10 days ago on a three-month contract. “I don’t want to take a stupid risk.”

He said a charter flight would take the employees to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, 220 miles to the south, from where they would take commercial flights today.

A Western diplomat and an ABB official said all foreign ABB employees and their families would be leaving on chartered flights by today.

Journalists were barred from the meeting between US ambassador James Oberwetter and Yanbu’s American community. But Oberwetter said later at a news conference that he had encouraged the families to leave the country.

“While we are doing this urging, the US government is not in a position to cause that to happen,” he said. ”Those are individual decisions by private Americans and by those companies.”

People who attended the meeting said the ambassador spoke bluntly. His message was: “It is time for us to pack our bags and go home … We cannot protect you here,” said a teacher at a local American school. A colleague nodded in agreement.

Reflecting the tense climate in Yanbu, the two women – like many foreigners - refused to give their names.

“I’m very, very frightened,” the teacher said. “We still don’t know whether we are going to stay or not, but I think it’s really time for us to leave.”

The violence began Saturday when four men sprayed ABB’s offices with gunfire, then tied the body of one victim to the bumper of a car and headed for the Ibn Hayyan Secondary Boys School.

Shaken Saudi schoolchildren recounted how the attackers summoned them with gunfire to watch the body being dragged.

Two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi died in the attack, which ended with gunbattles as police gave chase. All four attackers – who police said were Saudi brothers – were killed.