American consulate Attacked in Jeddah Saudi Arabia

[Nbadan]

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Around 200 police and national guards sealed off the area around the U.S. mission in the Red Sea city. Alarms could be heard sounding from the building.

Shooting broke out for a second time shortly afterwards. It was not immediately known if it was an attack by Muslim militants seeking to drive Westerners out of the kingdom.

"We have an emergency case," an official inside the building told Reuters. He gave no details.

Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of al Qaeda violence since May last year which has targeted foreigners and security forces

Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20041206/wl_nm/saudi_usa_consulate_dc)

Moral of the story: Member of the War on terror or not, terrorists are gonna strike ya if they can.

[Nbadan]

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Attackers struck the U.S. consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Monday, setting the building on fire and exchanging fire with security forces.

"I can confirm there has been an attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. The incident is ongoing with Saudi security forces trying to secure the building," said U.S. embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin.

She said there was no word on American casualties.

A Western executive, quoting officials inside the building, said attackers infiltrated the complex and threw hand grenades. "Several men breached U.S. and Saudi security and lobbed one or several grenades at the building," he said.

Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20041206/wl_nm/saudi_usa_consulate_dc)

[Nbadan]

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Muslim militants stormed the heavily fortified U.S. consulate in Jeddah on Monday, killing five non-American staffers, before Saudi forces shot dead three attackers and captured two to regain control.

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U.S. embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said: "We have five confirmed dead among our locally engaged staff and one of them is a contract (security) guard."


She refused to give their nationalities but security sources said they were Arabs and Asians. Kalin said a handful of other employees were in hospital.


A State Department official, who asked not to be named, said some Americans had been lightly wounded.

more:

Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20041206/wl_nm/saudi_usa_consulate_dc)

Wouldn't this be a bad time for things to heat up in Saudi Arabia?