Gunman attacks Saudi bus carrying foreigners

Riyadh, May 27: A gunman in a speeding car opened fire on a bus carrying five foreigners in eastern Saudi Arabia, but no one was injured in the incident, the interior ministry said.

The bus was traveling in the Gulf coast petrochemical hub of Jubail when it was fired on from an overtaking car, said ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki.

The shots shattered the rear window in the bus but neither the Pakistani driver nor the passengers – three Britons, one Saudi, and one Syrian were injured, he said. The five men all work for the same company, which was not identified.

Turki said the police were seeking the assailants but could not say what was behind the attack.

‘It’s early, premature to relate this incident to anything,’ he said. ‘The intention is unknown so far.’

Jubail is in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, the site of the country’s largest oil deposits and crucial oil and gas infrastructure, and has a large population of expatriate workers from all over the world.

In 2004 in Khobar south of Jubail, 22 people were killed after a local Al Qaeda cell took hostage more than 50 people, mostly foreigners.

And in 2006 another Al Qaeda group mounted an unsuccessful attack on a key oil facility in Abqaiq, in the same region.

-Agencies