Five ABB Workers Killed in Gun-Attack in Saudi Arabia (Update5)

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Gunmen killed five employees of Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd. in the town of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, which is battling with militants seeking to undermine the ruling al-Saud family.

Two of the victims are U.S. nationals, two are Britons and one Australian, said Bjorn Edlund, a spokesman for ABB, speaking by telephone from the company's base in Zurich. Edlund said the attack occurred while the men were working in an oil refinery run by Exxon Mobil Corp. and the Saudi company Sabic, Agence France- Presse reported.

Militants, who may be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, have been attacking Westerners on whom Saudi Arabia relies to help maintain the country's oil and gas, banking and defense industries. Last year, more than 40 foreigners were killed in two bomb attacks on housing compounds in the capital, Riyadh.

The latest attack, at Saudi Arabia's second-largest industrial city, ``follows a pattern of extremists trying to destabilize Saudi Arabia so that Western companies won't work there,'' said Anthony Harris, a former U.K. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

Four assailants attacked the building of an unidentified Saudi contractor in Yanbu at 7 a.m. local time, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a statement from the Saudi Interior Ministry. The assailants were later chased, and they held up several vehicles, the agency reported.

Policeman Killed

Three of the assailants were killed, and one was injured and captured in a shootout with security forces, the report said. The assailants were brothers, Dubai's Al-Arabiya television news reported, without saying where it got the information.

A Saudi policeman was also killed in the attack, Qatar's Al- Jazeera television news reported, without saying where it got the information.

One Canadian may have been injured in the attack, the Canadian Foreign Ministry said. Another 27 people, among them Saudis, were also hurt, Al-Arabiya reported, citing the Interior Ministry.

Saud al-Mosibeeh, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry didn't have any more details when Bloomberg called.

The five foreign victims were employees of Lummus, an ABB unit whose Middle Eastern offices are located in the Saudi town of Al-Khobar. Bong Buelle, a spokesman at the Saudi Arabian unit of Lummus, said the employees killed in Yanbu were working on a project and staying in the port temporarily.

The Australian who died was Anthony Mason, 57, from Western Australia, the Australian Foreign Ministry said in a statement read over the phone from Canberra.

Foreign Workers

ABB employs about 200 people in the kingdom, Buelle said by telephone from Khobar. Mahmoud Shaban, ABB's manager in Saudi Arabia, declined to comment when called on his mobile.

The British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and two consular staff are on the way to Yanbu to gather information and will arrive later today, the U.K. Foreign Office said.

The U.K. government advises Britons against ``all but essential'' travel to Saudi Arabia as ``terrorists remain determined to carry out further attacks,'' an advisory on the Foreign Office Web site says,

U.S. State Department officials are also traveling to the area, Susan Pittman, a department spokeswoman said.

About 100,000 Westerners, mainly Americans and Britons, live in Saudi Arabia and work in industries such as oil and banking. The kingdom relies on them for their management and technical expertise.

The number of Britons living in the kingdom has fallen by more than 15 percent to about 25,000 since 2001 because companies have found it more difficult to recruit, according to the U.K. embassy. Almost a quarter of Saudi Arabia's 23 million people are foreign residents, according to Samba Financial Group, the country's No. 2 bank.

Oil Center

Yanbu, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, is the country's second-largest industrial city, created to house petrochemical and other mainly petroleum-related industries. The city, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Jeddah, is home to more than 30 plants and 60,000 residents, according to the Arab Oil & Gas Directory.

``They are striking at the heart of the Saudi economy, where one of the biggest petrochemical complexes in the world is situated,'' former U.K. ambassador Harris said in a telephone interview.

Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell Group are among foreign companies that have joint-venture plants in Yanbu, according to the directory. The city also houses one of the country's crude oil terminals, with a capacity of 6.6 million barrels a day, the directory says.

``Normal operations continue in all company installations,'' said a spokesman for state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company by output. ``Security measures are in effect and on alert at all times,'' said the spokesman, who didn't want to be identified.

To contact the reporter on this story:
James Cordahi, in Dubai on, or at cherifcord@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story:
Catherine Hickley in Berlin on, or at chickley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 1, 2004 15:26 EDT