JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Dec 6 (AFP) - Five staff at the US consulate in the Saudi port of Jeddah were killed Monday when gunmen stormed the compound, triggering a shootout that left three of the attackers dead.
Accounts by police on the scene that at least four members of the Saudi national guard were also killed when they clashed with the gunmen were denied by a Saudi security source, but it was later officially reported that a number of security men were injured.
"Five non-American employees and contractors with the consulate were killed in today`s attack," a spokesman for the US embassy in the capital Riyadh told AFP.
The spokesman said the five were "third-country nationals, expatriates," implying they were not Saudi, although he did not give their nationalities.
There were no American casualties in the attack, he added, while the embassy said two other non-American staff members were wounded.
The interior ministry, giving an account of the three-hour crisis, said three of the attackers were killed and two more wounded and arrested, although it did not mention casualties among the security forces.
"No Saudi security men were killed in the incident," the security source told AFP, although he could not say if any had been injured.
Earlier, a police officer at the scene said at least four national guardsmen were killed when they clashed with the gunmen and several others were wounded.
Two Saudi security men outside the main gate were seen hit by bullets from within the consulate.
The official SPA news agency on Monday night carried a report saying that the governor of the Mecca region, Prince Abdul Majid bin Abdul Aziz, visited the security men and national guard members wounded in the attack. It did not give a figure.
State television aired footage of the prince chatting with at least half a dozen wounded men in hospital.
12/06/2004 19:26 GMT - AFP