Five die in Saudi gun attack

Five people are feared dead after gunmen opened fire today on housing offices of oil companies then taking hostages at a residential compound to use as human shields.

Three foreigners were believed to be among the dead.

Witnesses spoke of four gunmen in military-style dress attacking two oil company offices in the eastern city of Khoboar, then engaging Saudi security forces in a shootout at a residential compound, where they took the hostages.

A Western diplomat confirmed that a total of three compounds in Khobar, 250 miles northeast of the capital, Riyadh, were attacked.

Other witnesses said they saw three men with Western features lying on the ground covered with newspapers. Those bodies were taken away in ambulances, they said.

Nationalities of the foreigners were not known, but the British Foreign Office in London said British officials were en route to Khobar from Riyadh to check into rumours a British national was killed.

Two security guards were believed to be dead, according to the Western diplomat, who said there were three separate shooting attacks.

The gunmen – there are thought to have been as amany as four – took refuge in a compound housing Arabs and Westerners after a shootout with security forces, witnesses said.

At least 10 ambulances were seen outside the Oases compound, a luxury residential complex owned by a Saudi businessman, one witness said. He said he was told by a policeman that gunmen were apparently holding hostages.

Hundreds of policemen surrounded the compound, and helicopters hovered overhead, witnesses said.

They said they had heard of eight people killed at two compounds containing oil company offices, after which the gunmen took refuge in the housing compound.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh would not say whether any Americans were believed to have been caught up in the latest attack in the kingdom.

“We have received reports of an incident, and we are investigating it,” an embassy official in Riyadh said on condition of anonymity without elaborating.

Witnesses said the four men in military-style uniforms who apparently carried out the attack used a small car and were accompanied by another sports utility vehicle.

Saudi Arabia has launched a high-profile crackdown on terrorists following attacks on Riyadh housing compounds in 2003. The government says it has foiled dozens of terror attacks in the kingdom. Most of the attacks were blamed on al Qaida.

The most recent terror attack in Saudi Arabia targeted the offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. in the western city of Yanbu on May 1, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. In April, attackers bombed a security building in Riyadh, killing five people and injuring 148 more.

A week ago, a German who worked as a chef for Saudi Arabia’s national airline was shot and killed by unknown assailants. Authorities are investigating whether the attack was linked to terrorism.