How Did Saudi Terrorists Escape?

The No. 1 question in the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday was how three terrorists who killed 22 people were able to escape from a walled compound surrounded by hundreds of police officers.

The suspected al Qaeda militants went on a shooting rampage at the Oasis, a luxurious residential and resort complex over the weekend. The terrorists rounded up at least 50 hostages.

The gunmen targeted non-Muslims, and most of the victims were foreigners working in the oil industry. One American, identified as Frank Floyd, a former Kentucky resident, was killed.

An official Interior Ministry statement said the three militants who escaped used hostages as human shields until they fled in a truck, leaving the hostages behind. A fourth attacker who was wounded was also left behind. He was taken into custody.

But an Oasis employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, relayed an account from a hostage who said there wasn't much shooting heard toward the end of the standoff because a deal had been reached.

The hostage, who is fluent in Arabic, said he heard a gunman tell Saudi forces, "Let us go, and we'll let the hostages go."

Security forces at first refused, but later agreed after the militants, who also threatened to blow up the building, began killing their captives.

The New York Times reported that many Saudis and Westerners in the kingdom were wondering how it was possible that the killers escaped.

"It makes me very nervous," Ismail Rahim, a 33-year-old Saudi computer technician, told the newspaper. "We are all really upset about how these people left, how they just ran away from that compound."

A Saudi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not directly address whether the militants were allowed to escape. But he said: "Our main priority was the hostages, and those guys who ran away, we know how to find them."

A police official said the attackers fled to nearby Dammam, where they abandoned the truck, commandeered a car at gunpoint and drove off with police in pursuit. They remained at large Tuesday.

The attack came just ahead of an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting Thursday in Beirut, where ministers begin debate on a possible production increase to try to bring already high prices down.

Unease over the second terror attack in a month targeting oil-related interests in the kingdom also left foreign companies and expatriate workers re-evaluating whether to stay.

The question arises after every terror attack — and there have been several in the past year — and while some do leave, many generally choose to stay at their well-paying jobs.

The last two attacks, however, have been particularly brazen and brutal. On May 1, gunmen killed six people at a petrochemical compound in the Western industrial city of Yanbu, and dragged an American victim's body behind a car through the streets.

The U.S. Embassy had urged Americans to leave Saudi Arabia even before the Yanbu attack, which prompted some departures. Now, the British government is warning more attacks are imminent.

On Tuesday, an official with a Japanese government-backed oil research group told Dow Jones Newswires it may evacuate 15 researchers from Saudi Arabia — 11 of whom lived at the Oasis compound — because of security fears. The Japan Cooperation Center, Petroleum is consulting with the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco.

"We will soon dispatch our officials to Aramco's office and determine safety measures for the 15 researchers," an unidentified institute official told Dow Jones. All the researchers are Nippon Oil Corp. employees taking part in a joint project with Aramco.

Some Westerners working in Saudi Arabia were considering nearby Bahrain, where many already live, a half-hour commute from the Khobar area over the 18-mile King Fahd Causeway.