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Mr. Kalgukshi

Both BBC and CNN are reporting explosions and gunfire at expat compounds in Riyadh. Anyone have additional information? Stay safe, folks.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Four car bombs in three different compounds with mixed western and Saudi and other Arab residents - many in the hospital - nothing confirmed as to deaths, but it sounds pretty serious. It happened about 11:30pm there (4:00 ET in the US)

I wish our posters (JohnS - call home, we're worried about you!!) were here. I can't remember where Scot47 is. But, it is the middle of the night there right now.

titanicman · Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 71 Location: Qatar

Were Western English teachers living in the expatriate housing compounds? Which schools had teachers living there? IPA? King Saud? Others?

I'm thinking of relocating my workplace from Korea to K of SA. Is this a good time? What about the security situation in other cities like Dahrain or Jeddah? Are they relatively safe?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

The American Ambassador in Riyadh was just on CNN and said that among the injured were 40 Americans with a couple of deaths. But, it is still early times and stories will change. He suggested that the compounds contained Americans who were related to American companies doing military type work, but don't quote me. Only limited news is getting out.

Hopefully, we will hear soon from some of the teachers there who post here. Any of our members there are likely just getting out of bed and they will know more than we will about who lives where.

johnslat · Posted: Tue May 13, 2003 3:12 am Post subject: Boom Town

Dear Forum,
I just read about it all myself on Yahoo, so right now you probably know more about the whole thing that I do, but I should find out more at work today. I don't live on a compound, just an apartment building in a rather low-rent Arab district - probably the safest place for Westerners to be these days. All's well here - more later, inshallah.
Regards,
John
P.S. scot47's over in the Eastern Province; he should be OK.

Irish · Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 371

Thanks for taking the time to check in, John--it's good to know that you and the guru are safe and sound. We can't afford to lose the board's favorite psuedo-sexist or his backpacker-bashing buddy.

Stay in touch and keep safe,

Irish

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Like Irish, good to hear from you John. I had some friends that used to work at IPA and I didn't think that they were on a compound, but some of us are just worriers. It is time for me to go to bed on this side of the world, so I will catch up with all this in a few hours when it is 'my' morning.

Sunpower · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 256 Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/2003/05/12/saudibomb030512

chi-chi · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 127 Location: Back in Asia!

Sunpower · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 256 Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

I don't know how they knew but the States had info that something like this was coming.

A counterintelligence official in Washington said intelligence from the past two weeks indicated al-Qaeda was close to launching a strike in Saudi Arabia. The incident follows an alert earlier this month from the U.S. State Department warning Americans not to travel to Saudi Arabia because of concerns over terrorism.

What do you do - Stop living?
If you wanna go, then maybe you should
go if you have a chance to.