6 Westerners killed at Saudi oil plant

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Attackers sprayed gunfire inside an oil contractor's office Saturday, killing at least six Westerners — including two Americans — and wounding at least 25 others before leading police on a bloody chase with the naked body of one of the victims dragging behind the car.

Witnesses told the Associated Press that police engaged in a shootout with the gunmen outside a Holiday Inn before overpowering them on a downtown street. A statement from the Interior Ministry said police killed three of the attackers and wounded a fourth, who died later.

One of the attackers was reportedly on the Saudi kingdom's list of most-wanted terrorists, many of them suspects in two suicide attacks last year on foreign housing compounds in the capital, Riyadh. Both attacks were blamed on al-Qaida.

Three of the gunmen worked at the contractor's office in the industrial city of Yanbu, 220 miles north of the Red Sea city of Jiddah; they used their key cards to enter the building and sneak another attacker through an emergency gate, according to an Interior Ministry source quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"Using different arms, they started firing at the offices of the company's personnel before leaving the scene in a hurry to begin attacking a residential compound," the agency quoted the source as saying, giving no further details.

The Interior Ministry statement said the gunmen walked into the offices and "randomly shot at Saudi and foreign employees." The offices are across the street from a petrochemicals plant co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC.

The Saudi Press Agency report said two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi National Guardsman were killed, but a European diplomat told AP that a second Australian also died. It was not immediately possible to confirm how many Australians were killed.

The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi Arabia was in May 2003, when a coordinated suicide bombings at Riyadh housing compounds killed 34 people, including eight Americans. The second Riyadh suicide assault, in November, killed 17 people.

There was no word on the motivation behind Saturday's shootings, but U.S. officials had warned in recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. ally. A Saudi diplomat called the attack an "indiscriminate evil rampage."

Intelligence has suggested al-Qaida wanted to strike at Saudi oil interests, and terror group leader Osama bin Laden — a Saudi exile — has called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic credentials.