Seven killed in militant attack on US consulate in Jeddah

Islamic militants using a car today attacked the heavily-guarded U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with explosives and machine guns in a explosion and gunbattle that left seven people dead and several others injured.

Three attackers were killed and two were injured and arrested, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced. Saudi security officials also said four of their forces were killed.

The statement by an Interior Ministry spokesman, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, said a “stray bunch” – a reference to Islamic militants – threw explosives at the gate of the consulate then entered. Saudi security forces engaged the attackers, “killing three aggressors and two were captured after they were hit”.

The Saudi statement said: “The situation was brought under control.” It gave no further details.

In Riyadh, the US Embassy spokeswoman said two local staff members were injured, but all American staff were safe.

“We have accounted for all Americans on the compound in Jeddah and none of them are being held hostage.’ said US Embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin, in Riyadh. “We have a local workforce that was on duty and we are still in the process of accounting for them.”

A Saudi health official said several people injured in the blast were taken to a hospital in Jeddah. None were Americans, the official said.

Saudi officials said there was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Saudi officials have blamed al-Qaida operatives for the string of attacks that have hit the kingdom in the past two years.

Saudi security forces, including snipers, could be seen on the rooftops of buildings around the consulate compound. Thick smoke rose from the compound and helicopters hovered overhead.

The consulate is located in the heart of the city, just a half-mile from the city’s Red Sea coastal road.

The building – like all US diplomatic buildings and other Western compounds in Saudi Arabia – has been heavily fortified and guarded since last year’s series of bombings against targets housing foreigners.

The attack was the latest in a series of attacks against Westerners since 2003, when car bombs targeted three compounds housing foreign workers in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine suicide bombers. Later that year, a suicide car bomb killed 17 people and wounded 122 at a compound for foreign workers in Riyadh.

Last May, 22 people were killed, including 19 foreigners, by militants who took over a resort complex in Khobar and held hostages for 25 hours. In another attack that month, militants stormed offices of Houston-based ABB Lummus Global in Yanbu, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. All four attackers in Yanbu died in a shoot-out after an hour-long police chase in which they dragged the body of an American from the bumper of their car.

In June, militants in Riyadh kidnapped and beheaded Paul Johnson, an engineer for a US defence company.