Hotel searched after hostage massacre

An hotel was being searched today for clues to the killers of 22 people who died in a shooting rampage and hostage stand-off in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Blood stains, glass shards, bullet holes and evidence of grenade blasts scar the Oasis compound, according to an employee who had been inside assessing damage within the heavily-guarded compound.

Outside, red and white concrete barriers, soldiers and gun-mounted vehicles kept people away.

Broken windows were visible in the upper floors of the hotel where a day-long hostage stand-off ended with one attacker arrested and three escaping.

The death toll from the 25-hour ordeal was one British man, eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis, two Sri Lankans, an American, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and a 10-year-old Egyptian.

Surviving hostages – dozens were freed – have so far kept away from the media, and Saudi authorities have not provided many details on how the stand-off ended.

But one report quoted a hostage as saying there was not much shooting heard toward the end of the stand-off because a deal had been reached.

He heard a gunman say “let us go and we’ll let the hostages go”. Security forces first said no, but agreed after the militants, who also threatened to blow up the building, began killing hostages.

The worst terror attack on Saudi soil in a year - and the second this month to target its oil industry - began on Saturday morning, when militants in military-style dress opened fire inside two oil industry office compounds in the Gulf city of Khobar.

They then moved up the street to the Oasis, a smart resort and residence with apartments, villas and hotels, where they took at least 50 hostages.

Saudi security stormed the building early yesterday after they found out that the hostages were being harmed, said Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to Saudi Arabia’s embassy in London.

The commandos freed 41 hostages, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The Saudi ambassador to Britain, Turki al-Faisal, told the BBC that the bodies of nine hostages had been found on the premises when forces went in.

Only one of the four attackers was captured and the others escaped, but the Interior Ministry said the arrested militant, who was wounded, was the ringleader of the assault and “an important target”. One of the fugitives also was wounded.

Saudi Arabia relies on six million expatriate workers to run its oil industry and related sectors.

The attack in the kingdom’s oil industry hub was expected to have some effect on world oil markets – where prices have been at new highs – but analysts have said that jitters should not be too strong since no hard oil facilities, such as refineries, were targeted.