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Hostages seized at US consulate
06/12/2004 12:24 - (SA)
Jeddah - Gunmen stormed the US consulate in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah on Monday and took a number of staff hostage, police said, as explosions and gunfire rocked the area.
Witnesses said Saudi security forces had sealed off the consulate, where a fire was raging inside the compound, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.
An official at the US embassy in the capital Riyadh confirmed that the consulate had come under attack and that the incident was still going on shortly after midday (0900 GMT).
"There has been an attack. It is still ongoing," spokesperson Carol Kalin said, adding: "Saudi security forces are still in the process of securing the compound."
She said the embassy in Riyadh and the US consulate in the eastern oil city of Dhahran had been shut down as "a precautionary measure."
Susan Pittman, a spokesperson for the state department in Washington, said the department was monitoring the situation and was unaware of any American casualties.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting a renewed wave of violence, which it blames on the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and which has killed some 90 people and wounded hundreds since May 2003.
US interests in the oil-rich desert kingdom have been a particular target in 10 years of deadly militant attacks against foreigners.
In 1996, an explosives-laden truck destroyed a building at a US military base at Khobar in the east of Saudi Arabia, killing 19 US nationals.
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