Saudi forces hunted Monday for gunmen who shot dead an Irish cameraman working for the BBC and seriously wounded a reporter in a Riyadh area known as a stronghold for Islamist militants. Security sources said the gunmen fled after the shooting. British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles said the BBC journalists were with a Saudi information ministry guide at the time. He told the BBC there was a "serious and chronic terrorist threat" in Saudi Arabia and warned the shooting could drive more Westerners to leave the Gulf state. A doctor at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital said Gardner had also been hit in the pelvis and leg. "Gardner’s condition is stabilizing after a critical night," he told Reuters. The BBC’s head of news Richard Sambrook said the crew were in the Suweidi district, filming the house of an al Qaeda militant who police killed last year, when the gunmen attacked. | Maybe his "family" was still home. |
Security sources said the gunmen separated the Saudi escort from the journalists before shooting them. Authorities are questioning him for more details. | "Thanks for bringing the infidel press to us. You can go now |
." British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the shooting and said his country "would continue to do all we can to support the Saudi authorities in their fight against terrorism." "There is a serious and chronic terrorist threat, and people -- particularly Westerners, particularly Britons and Americans -- need to exercise extreme vigilance and consider their personal safety," Cowper-Coles said. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal has warned the militants were now going after soft targets, and many Westerners said they were afraid for their lives. "It’s frightening. We are seeing them (militants) carrying out more attacks. I don’t see it ending," one Westerner said. Riyadh’s Suweidi district is a stronghold of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda followers and 15 of the 26 most wanted militants in the kingdom, including the leader of the group in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, come from there. |