By Ahmed Al Omran in Riyadh and Jay Solomon in Paris
One American employee of a U.S. defense contractor was killed
and another lightly wounded Tuesday after a gunman opened fire on
their car in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The gunman attacked the car at a gas station and store near the
Riyadh base of the contractor, Vinnell Arabia LLC, which supports
Saudi National Guard programs in the capital, a senior U.S. State
Department official said.
The Saudi Ministry of the Interior identified the assailant as
Abdulaziz Fahad Abdulaziz Alrashid, a 24-year-old dual
Saudi-American citizen, and said he was wounded in a shootout with
Saudi security forces before being apprehended.
The Saudi ministry said Mr. Alrashid had worked at the same
company as the victims before being dismissed "due to drug-related
issues."
"We're continuing to gather details about the incident," U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding that "there are some
questions about whether it was or wasn't a disgruntled employee."
Speaking in Paris, Mr. Kerry said the U.S. was "in the process of
evaluating our security posture."
Vinnell Arabia is a joint venture between Northrop Grumman Corp.
and Arab Builders for Trading. The firm provides training and
logistics support to the Saudi Arabia National Guard and employs
1,250 staff, half of them Saudi nationals.
"As a long-term partner in Saudi Arabia, we offer our deepest
sympathies to the family members of both Vinnell Arabia employees
involved in the incident," said an Northrop spokesman. "We continue
to support the Vinnell leadership as they work with Saudi
authorities and the State Dept. on this matter."
Nine Northrop staff working for Vinnell were killed in Riyadh in
2003 during an attack on a residential and office compound,
including seven U.S. nationals and two Philippine citizens. The
firm was under contract from the U.S. Army to provide training for
the national guard.
Western expatriates were frequent targets of attacks in Saudi
Arabia between 2003 and 2007, when al Qaeda waged a violent
campaign to destabilize the kingdom.
The most recent such assault occurred in February 2007, when
three French citizens were killed near Madain Saleh, the ruins of a
Nabatean settlement dating to the first century and now a Unesco
World Heritage site.
Doug Cameron contributed to this article.
Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com
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