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JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Attackers sprayed gunfire inside a Saudi oil contractor's office Saturday, killing at least six Westerners - including two Americans - and wounding at least 25. Police killed four gunmen in a shootout after a bloody car chase in which the attackers dragged the naked body of a victim behind their getaway car.
One of the attackers killed was reportedly on the Saudi kingdom's list of most-wanted terrorists, many of them suspects in last year's suicide attacks on foreign housing compounds in the capital, Riyadh. The two attacks were blamed on al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Three of the gunmen worked at the contractor's office in the industrial city of Yanbu, 220 miles north of the Red Sea city of Jiddah; they used their key cards to enter the building and sneak another attacker through an emergency gate, according to an Interior Ministry source quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Witnesses said police engaged in a shootout with the gunmen outside a Holiday Inn before overpowering them on a downtown street. A statement from the Interior Ministry said police killed three attackers and wounded one, who died later.
The Interior Ministry statement said the gunmen walked into the offices and "randomly shot at Saudi and foreign employees." The offices are across the street from a petrochemicals plant co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC.
After the attacks, police moved in to secure Yanbu's streets with checkpoints throughout the city, a resident said.
The Saudi Press Agency report said two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi National Guardsman were killed. A European diplomat said a second Australian also died, but it was not immediately possible to confirm.
The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi Arabia was in May 2003, when coordinated suicide bombings at Riyadh housing compounds killed 34 people, including eight Americans. The second Riyadh suicide assault, in November, killed 17 people.
There was no word on the motivation behind Saturday's shootings, but U.S. officials warned in recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. ally. Intelligence has suggested al-Qaida wanted to strike at Saudi oil interests, and bin Laden - a Saudi exile - has called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic credentials.
Crown Prince Abdullah, speaking on Saudi television, said: "The kingdom will eliminate terrorism no matter how long it takes."
Later, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Abdullah as telling a gathering of princes in Jiddah that "Zionism is behind terrorist actions in the kingdom. I can say that I am 95 percent sure of that."
Saudi TV footage showed a victim lying in the bloody front seat of a sports utility vehicle, his leg dangling out an open door with a rifle nearby and bullets on the floor. He appeared to be wearing a security officer's uniform.
After firing in the office, the attackers tied the body of a victim to the back of a stolen car before fleeing, according to a witness.
The Web site of the English-language Saudi Gazette reported the attackers stripped the man naked before tying him to the getaway car and dragging him along a road. The newspaper showed a photograph of an attacker lying in a pool of blood in the middle of a road wearing only black trousers and surrounded by a crowd of Saudi bystanders in white robes.
Mohamed Ghamdi, the Gazette's editor, said the dead man was Abdullah Saud Abu-Nayan al-Sobaie, No. 10 on a list of the kingdom's 26 most-wanted terrorists. In another, near-simultaneous attack in the city on Saturday, a pipe bomb was thrown over a wall of the Yanbu International School, causing minor damage and slightly injuring a custodian, according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council, which shares security information between the U.S. government and the private sector.
The two Americans killed were engineers for ABB-Lummus, the energy arm of multinational engineering company ABB. The U.S. Embassy also said several Saudi security forces were "killed and wounded in their fight with the terrorists," but gave no numbers.
The Saudi crown prince said 25 people were wounded in the attack. The ABB spokesman said the wounded included two American employees. Diplomats also said two Canadians and a Saudi police captain were among the wounded.
Saudi Arabia - the world's biggest oil producer - relies heavily on 6-million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil industry and other sectors. The kingdom produces about 8-million barrels of oil a day, and a significant disruption could affect markets.