Al-Qaida claims responsibility for attack against American consulate in Jeddah
Saudi Arabia-USA, Politics, 12/7/2004

Al-Qaida organization in Saudi Arabia has claimed responsibility for the attack against the building of the strongly protected American consulate in Jeddah which resulted in killing 12 persons including five non-American employees in the consulate.

In a statement on the Internet, al-Qaida organization in the Arab peninsula -- al-Qaida wing in Saudi Arabia -- said "your brothers in the group of Abu Anas al-Shami in Falluja invasion, broke into one of the fortified places in the Arab peninsula and broke into the American consulate in Jeddah which governs the country's affairs where spies and traitors are spread." The organization said in the statement which has not been yet confirmed that the attack resulted in killing 9 persons in the consulates including two Americans as well as scores of wounded. The organization said it destroyed and burnt several offices in the consulate and got advanced light weapons, electronic instruments and important documents.

In the first reaction to the operation, the American President George W. Bush said that such an attack against the American consulate in Jeddah confirms the continued moves of what he described as terrorists in the region with the aim of forcing the Americans to leave it.

A spokeswoman for the American embassy in Riyadh said that five non-American workers in the Consulate in Jeddah were killed in a breaking in operation carried out by gunmen and lasted for three hours.

A statement by the Saudi ministry of the interior said that three gunmen and four members of the national guards were killed in the operation. One official source at the ministry said that three attackers were killed at the site of the incident and two others were injured.

The statement added that the persons killed in the consulate are one Yemeni, one Sudanese, one Palestinian, one Pakistani and one from Sri Lanka. Other 8 were injured. They are two from Yemen, two from Pakistan, one Lebanese, one Palestinian, one Indian and one from Sri Lanka.

Previous Stories:
  Seven persons killed, hostages taken in a breaking in to American consulate in Jeddah   (12/6/2004)
  Al-Qaida defies Saudi Arabia, recruit its members via the Internet   (11/17/2004)
  Fire opened at one American diplomatic car in Jeddah   (8/31/2004)
  Riyadh: an advertisement campaign in 19 American states on being a US ally   (8/18/2004)
  US permits diplomats to return back to Saudi Arabia   (8/14/2004)
  American Venil comany to continue in Saudi Arabia despite killing of its employee; Washington commends Riyadh on fighting of extremists   (6/10/2004)

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