29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres

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Attacks by al-Qaeda
WTC bombing – 1st Khobar – Africa embassies – USS Cole – September 11 – Ghriba – Mombasa – Riyadh – Istanbul – 2nd Khobar – Amman

In the 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia, four Islamist terrorists attacked two oil industry installations and a foreign workers' housing complex, the Oasis Compound, in the Gulf city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, taking more than 50 hostages and killing 22 of them. It was reported that the kidnappers asked the hostages if they were Christian or Muslim, letting the Muslims go.

On May 30, Saudi Special Emergency Forces stormed the compound where the terrorists held the hostages. Despite dramatic live footage, three of the terrorists had already escaped, by stealing a car and using hostages as human shields. Another was captured. Altogether 41 hostages were freed, 25 were injured and 22 were killed, among them 19 foreigners. It is widely believed that Saudi security forces somehow facilitated the perpetrators' escape, given that it was broad daylight and the Oasis compound was surrounded by hundreds of armed soldiers, police officers, and reporters at the time the terrorists managed to escape.

The nationalities of those killed included eight people from India, three from the Philippines, two from Sri Lanka, one each from Sweden, Italy, England, the United States, South Africa and Egypt.

Several of the hostages had their throats slit, among them an Italian cook, Antonio Amato (35), and a Swedish cook, Magnus Johanssons (50), who had taken a job in Saudi Arabia for the higher pay. The terrorists' main targets were Americans. However, the only American killed was Frank Floyd, who worked as an assistant marketing director for Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd. Most of the killings took place in the compound's Italian restaurant, Casa Mia, where Amato and Johanssons worked.

Following the attacks, some foreign workers either fled the country or were evacuated by the companies they worked for, as they felt it was too dangerous to stay. Several thousand other Americans and other Westerners, notably those who worked for Saudi Aramco and lived on Saudi Aramco's Dhahran compound nearby, decided to stay in the area. Generally, Westerners in Saudi Arabia are paid well, receive impressive benefits and ample vacation time.

A previously unheard-of militant group calling itself "The Jerusalem Squadron" -- a local Saudi Arabia-based faction of al-Qaeda -- claimed responsibility and said it was attacking "Zionists and Crusaders" who are there to "steal our oil and resources". An audio tape was released in which Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, thought to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Saudi Arabia, took responsibility. On the tape he said "among the killed was a Japanese [sic] who was slaughtered because USA have mixed his tribe into the war against Muslims." According to the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the goal of the terrorists was to shake Saudi Arabia's stability and economy.

The British and American schools around Khobar and Dhahran were put on lock-down during the terror attacks. In Dharahn British grammar school, children were not released from school until over an hour after the usual time. During the same day, shooting broke out in downtown Khobar, about twenty minutes away. A few British nursery workers were rescued from the Oasis compound, and were returned to the Las Dunas compound, where their families and friends had been waiting in suspense.

Also that day the Apicorp Compound was attacked at around 7:00 A.M. The first target was Michael Hamilton, a leading member of the Apicorp Corporation, who was going to pick his wife from the embassy. His car was shot at and his body was taken out and dragged so much that his facial features were unrecognizable when his body and car were later found dumped under a causeway. The attack took place directly outside Apicorp's security gate and two security guards were killed. Unfortunately a school bus was coming out at the time and was shot at, killing a 9-year old Egyptian boy who was the son of an Apicorp employee. Thus Apicorp's headquarters were attacked from outside, but not infiltrated. It is thought that had the attackers not found Hamilton first, they would have entered the compound and attacked residents, thereby increasing casualties.