List of Militant Incidents in Saudi Arabia - 2004

2004

• 19 January Shootout in Al-Nassim District (Riyadh)

• 29 January One unnamed gunman captured and five police officers killed in a shootout in the Al-Nassim District of Riyadh.

• April United States Embassy issues a travel advisory for the kingdom and urges all US citizens to leave.

• 5 April An unnamed militant is reported killed in a car chase in Riyadh.

• 12 April A police officer and one militant are killed in a shootout in Riyadh. Rakan ibn Moshen Al-Seikhan and Nasser ibn Rashid Al-Rashid are wounded and escaped. Both are reported dead on 4 July.

• 13 April 4 police officers are killed in two attacks by militants. Several car bombs are found and defused.

• 15 April The United States orders all governmental dependents and nonessential personnel out of the kingdom as a security measure.

• 21 April A suicide bomber detonates a car bomb in Riyadh at the gates of a building used as the headquarters of the traffic police and emergency services. Five people die and 148 are injured.

• 22 April 3 unnamed militants are killed by police in Jeddah in an incident in the Al-Fayha district.

• 1 May (See: Black Saturday (2004)) Seven people (two US citizens, two Britons, an Australian, a Canadian, and a Saudi) are killed in a rampage at the premises of a petroleum company in Yanbu by three brothers. All the attackers, dressed in military uniforms, are killed.

• 22 May German chef Hermann Dengl is shot and killed at a Jarir Bookstore in Riyadh.

• 29 May (See: 29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres) 22 are killed during an attack on the Oasis Compound in Al-Khobar. After a siege the gunmen escape. 19 of those killed are foreigners.

• 6 June Simon Cumbers, an Irish cameraman for the BBC, is killed and the reporter Frank Gardner very severely wounded by gunshots to his head in Riyadh.

• 8 June Robert Jacobs, a US citizen working for Vinnel Corp., is killed at his villa in Riyadh.

• 13 June One US expatriate Kenneth Scroggs is killed and another Paul Johnson working for Lockheed Martin is kidnapped at a fake police checkpoint in Riyadh. A car bomb is also discovered on this date.

• 18 June US citizen Paul Johnson is beheaded in Riyadh. His body is found some time later. A few hours later security services kill five militants (Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, Turki Al-Muteri, Ibahim Al-Durayhim and two others). A dozen are reported captured.

• 23 June Saudi government offers a thirty-day limited amnesty to "terrorists".

• 1 July Abdullah ibn Ahmed Al-Rashoud is killed in shootout east of the capital. Bandar Al-Dakheel escapes. Two policemen (Bandar Al-Qahtani and Humoud Abdullah Al-Harbi) are killed.

• 4 July The bodies of Moshen Al-Seikhan and Nasser ibn Rashid Al-Rashid are discovered. One had had his leg crudely amputated. Both seem to have been wounded in fights with the security services and died later.

• 13 July Khaled al-Harbi, who is listed on the government's most-wanted list, surrenders in Iran, is flown to Saudi Arabia.

• 14 July Ibrahim al-Harb surrenders himself in Syria.

• 20 July Shootout in Riyadh. Eisa ibn Saad Al-Awshan (number 13 on the list of the 26 most-wanted militants) is killed. Saleh al-Oufi (#4), the head of Al Qaeda in the kingdom escapes from the raid on the compound where he had been living with his extended family.

• 23 July Amnesty offer expires. Six wanted people had turned themselves in.

• 4 August Tony Christopher, an Irish expatriate, is shot and killed at his desk in Riyadh.

• 5 August Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani (#11 on the government's list of most-wanted) is captured in Abha without a fight.

• 30 August An unnamed US government employee is shot at while leaving a bank in Jeddah. No injuries.

• 11 September Two small bombs go off in Jeddah near the Saudi British and Saudi American Banks. Nobody is injured.

• 15 September Edward Smith, a British expatriate working for Marconi, is shot dead at a supermarket in Riyadh. No arrests are made.

• 26 September Laurent Barbot, a French employee of a defense electronics firm, is shot dead in his car in Jeddah. Five Chadians confessed to the crime in June 2005.

• 4 November Unnamed ‘deviant’ is arrested in a shoot-out at an Internet café in Buraidah, Qasim region. Two policemen are injured.

• 9 November Shootout in Jeddah. On Al-Amal Al-Saleh Street, police capture four unnamed militants and seize eight AKs and hundreds of locally-made bombs. No deaths are reported.

• 10 November Government announces the interception of 44,000 rounds of ammunition being smuggled in from Yemen. One Saudi waiting for the shipment is arrested.

• 13 November Five unnamed militants arrested in Riyadh and Zulfi. A number of machine guns and other weapons are captured. Nobody is hurt in the gunfight.

• 17 November A police officer (Private Fahd Al-Olayan) is killed and eight are injured in a shootout in Unayzah, Qassim. Five persons of interest are detained. Computers, pipe bombs and SR38,000 are seized.

• 6 December Five employees are killed (a Yemeni, a Sudanese, a Filipino, a Pakistani and a Sri Lankan) as five militants invade the US Consulate in Jeddah. No US citizens are killed.

• 16 December A call for kingdom-wide anti-government demonstrations by a London-based group fails.

• 29 December Two suicide car bombs explode in Riyadh. One outside the Interior Ministry Complex, the other near the Special Emergency Force training center. A passerby is killed and some people are wounded. In a resulting gun battle, seven suspected militants are killed. Two (Sultan Al-Otabi and Faisal Al-Dakheel) were on the Kingdom’s list of 26 Most Wanted.