American shot dead in Saudi

2004-06-08 16:29

Riyadh - An American citizen was shot and killed on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, according to a United States embassy official, in the second deadly shooting of a Westerner in the kingdom in two days.

"We can confirm that an American has been killed in Riyadh," said the official on condition of anonymity. He provided few details.

The official said the victim worked for Vinnell Corporation, a US defence contractor based in Fairfax, Virginia.

Seven Vinnell employees were among the 35 people, including nine suicide bombers, who died last year in an attack on a Riyadh foreigners' housing compound.

Another diplomat in Riyadh, also speaking anonymously, said the victim was a man and that he had been shot and killed in the Khaleej neighborhood of eastern Riyadh.

The official Saudi news agency quoted the Riyadh police chief, general Abdullah al-Shahrani, as saying police responding to a report of a shooting found an American shot dead in his home. The agency said the death was being investigated.

Photographer killed, reporter 'critical'

Saudi officials have blamed a string of attacks on Westerners, government targets and economic interests in the kingdom on militants inspired by or belonging to al-Qaida, terror network led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.

An Irish cameraman and a British reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation came under fire on Sunday while filming a militant's family home in Riyadh.

The cameraman, Simon Cumbers, 36, was killed and BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42, was critically injured.

The journalists were attacked in a low-income, southern Riyadh neighbourhood that has been the scene of numerous confrontations between government forces and militants.

The British foreign office has advised Britons against all non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia. The United States has gone further, urging all of its citizens to leave the kingdom.

There has been an upsurge of violence in the kingdom despite a high-profile anti-terror campaign that the government began after the May 2003 attacks on residential compounds.

In 25-hour a shooting rampage and hostage-takiing that began on May 29, 22 people, most of them foreigners, were killed in the eastern Saudi oil hub of Khobar.

- AP