Qaeda Attack Kills at Least 9 Saudis, 7 Foreigners.

KHOBAR (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least nine Saudis and seven foreigners in a string of attacks in an oil-industry city on Saturday, then took hostages and fled with security forces in hot pursuit.

Saudi security sources said an American, a Briton, an Egyptian, two Filipinos, an Indian and a Pakistani died in the attacks on foreigners’ compounds in the eastern city of Khobar, along with two Saudi civilians and seven security force members.

“I can confirm the death of at least one American. There may be more,” a U.S. embassy official said.

Saudi forces later stormed a housing compound where the militants had taken the hostages, a compound employee told Reuters. He give no further details. Forces cordoned off the area, evacuated many civilians and shooting could be heard.

A Saudi Interior Ministry statement confirmed four gunmen had stormed an oil company and housing compounds and said security forces were “dealing with them as appropriate.”

A statement purportedly from Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network posted on Islamist Web sites claimed the attacks.

The group blamed for the September 2001 attacks on the United States has vowed to destabilize the U.S.-allied monarchy and the world’s leading oil exporter.

Witnesses said a body had been dragged through the streets, apparently by militants, in the third attack against foreigners in less than a month in the birthplace of Islam. It appeared aimed at the crucial and in part Western-run oil industry.

Al Arabiya aired footage of a man with Western features, slumped in his car, apparently shot dead by the gunmen. It showed a charred car and a third blood-spattered vehicle.

The attack came two days after the top al Qaeda leader in the kingdom, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, issued a battle plan for urban guerrilla war, specifying steps militants needed to topple the royal family.

It’s utterly infuriating to see Reuters using their morally empty weasel words here. Why are these murderers called “militants?” They slaughter civilians in an oil company and housing compounds, drag bodies through the streets—but they’re not terrorists?

Aaaarrrrggghhhh.