My Life and Times

December 7, 2004
Saudi Raid Survivors Say Human Shields Were UsedBy NEIL MacFARQUHAR
IDDA, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 7 - One young man deployed as a human shield during the armed assault against the American consulate here said from his hospital bed today that the most vivid moment came when the gunman who had been firing over the man's shoulder ordered him to raise his hands and scream "God is Great!"
The cry is one of the last things a good Muslim hopes to utter before dying, and Abdel Jabar Nirous, a 27-year-old supply clerk from Sri Lanka, was convinced his life was at an end. He struggled to wrench himself away from the man before passing out.
When he regained consciousness, he said, "I saw my two friends lying dead in front of me and blood everywhere."
Eight men were used as human shields for one to two hours on Monday, survivors in King Fahd hospital said. They were gathered outside by the attackers who breached the security surrounding the heavily fortified compound and were gradually picked off during a gunbattle involving both Saudi security forces and United States Marines.
The most senior American officials in the kingdom, Ambassador James C. Oberwetter and Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the consul general in Jidda, tried to put the most positive spin possible on the outcome of the attack during a news conference today by asserting that security measures had largely worked.
"It's not good to hear gunfire outside your office, but I did have complete faith in the security of the building," Ms. Abercrombie-Winstanley said. The consulate's American staff was working in the main chancery building at the time of the attack and was taken to a secure area within the building by marines. Security measures like magnetic doors and gunfire from the marines managed to fend off an assault by the gunmen, who were unable to enter the building. No Americans died and two suffered superficial injuries.
The ambassador sidestepped a question as to who was to blame for the security breach that allowed four of the five gunmen - the fifth was shot down in the initial fight at the gate - to run in through a gate slowly closing automatically behind a consular vehicle that had just entered.
"I think using the word blame is the wrong way to go," he said. "Obviously the events of yesterday show a need for an improvement. We will be examining what additional steps need to be taken."
He said the immediate step asked for was additional security from the Saudi government and he was sure the Saudis would provide it. The Saudi Cabinet issued a formal condemnation of the attack, but other than that there was only a brief official statement listing the names of three of the four dead attackers. The fourth was still being identified, it said.
Mr. Oberwetter said the way the attack unfolded clearly indicated that the gunmen had studied at least the outer workings of the consulate - a sprawling, walled compound of several acres near Jidda's waterfront. Reporters were not allowed onto the scene - the news conference was held in a hotel used for guests of the Saudi government.
Just as one barrier was lowered and the hydraulically powered gate was opened to let in a consular vehicle, the armed men in a car veered across a couple lanes of traffic and tried to dart into the compound. A heavy barrier raised out of the ground stopped them.
"They clearly understood how our cars entered the compound and in my view they had scoped it out," the ambassador said, noting that the barrier had worked the way it was supposed to. The gunmen shot at the vehicle that had passed inside, wounding two of the three passengers, and then stormed into the compound before the gate closed.
The fact that the American consulate had been breached sent a tremor through the expatriate community here, already heavily depleted after a series of attacks against foreign compounds since May 2003 left more than 75 people dead.
"If anyone can break into the U.S. Consulate, which is the most heavily guarded compound in this city, then we are all vulnerable," said Georgene S. Wade, the director of the American International School. She said the school with an enrollment of 600 this year has already lost scores of students as private American companies followed the lead of the State Department and ordered spouses and dependents to leave the country.
"Anyone willing to risk their lives for the cause, we have no defense against that," she added.
The description of what happened inside the compound contradicts statements by officials in the State Department and the Saudi Embassy in Washington that no hostages were taken during the three-hour attack.
Mr. Nirous said he was with three others in the general services office when he saw a bearded man with a gun wearing a track suit run by outside the window. At the same moment the alarm system began emitting a serious of rapid squawks. They had been trained to lock all the doors and lie on the floor in the event of such an attack, which they did, he said.
About 20 minutes later the gunmen shot through both doors and started shouting at them "Where are the Americans?" When they professed ignorance they were told to hand over their cellphones and their money and go outside.
Once outside, they were taken to a dirt area near the middle of the compound where four other local employees joined them. Each gunman surrounded himself with at least two employees.
"They used us as a barricade," said Latif Aboulhosn, a 62-year Lebanese electrician shot in the chest in the leg. Breathing heavily in his hospital bed, with an intravenous line dripping into him, he said he could not be sure who shot him as he tried to run away from the gunfire. He was asked repeatedly where the Americans were.
Salah Abdel Qawi, a bearded Yemeni dispatcher who also suffered a gunshot wound, said that for the most part the Saudi special forces shooting at the attackers seemed to be trying to pick them off.
When the gunfire intensified, the attackers were all screaming "God is Great!" and the human shields took the opportunity to fling themselves to the ground. He remembers trying to shove his face down into the dirt. The line between life and death proved a thin one, with five employees killed.
A Sudanese colleague lying next to him raised his head to try to figure out what was happening.
"He got shot," Mr. Qawi said.
Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting for this article.
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