A video grab from Al-Arabiya news channel shows Saudi troops dropping onto a rooftop

AL-KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, May 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Saudi Interior Ministry announced Sunday, May 30, that a total of 22 people were killed in the Al-Khobar attacks, admitting that three of the four attackers managed to flee.

The victims were identified as an American, a Briton, an Italian, a Swede, eight Indians, three Filipinos, two Sri Lankans, one South African, one Egyptian and three Saudis, the ministry said in a statement, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It was unclear how many of the dead were killed in the initial shootout and how many had been hostages.

According to the statement, three of the gunmen who carried out the Al-Khobar attacks escaped while the fourth was wounded and captured.

"Security forces wounded the leader of the group and arrested him," added the statement, describing the man as "one of the most-wanted" in the kingdom.

"The three others, one of them wounded, fled from the (housing) complex."      

Earlier in the morning, helicopter-borne Saudi troops freed most of the foreign hostages held by suspected Al-Qaeda militants, but lost an unspecified number in the process.

"In the last hour after Saudi security stormed the building where the militants were holding hostages, they (gunmen) killed some hostages," a security source told Reuters without specifying the number or nationalities.

A manager at the Oasis housing compound, where the hostages were being held, said three foreign hostages were killed, including one American and one Briton.

"The operation is over," a police official on the scene told Reuters.

"Most hostages have been released. Seven have been evacuated to a hotel and others are still with security forces ahead of their evacuation," he added.

On Saturday, May 29, gunmen wearing military-style dress traded fire with Saudi security forces at two oil industry compounds in Al-Khobar, 250 miles northeast of Riyadh.

After killing 16 people, including Saudis and foreigners, the militants fled up the street into a building in Oasis Residential Resorts complex, where they took the hostages.

The five-star residence houses executives from oil giants Royal Dutch/Shell, Total and LUKOIL and Apicorp, an arm of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

Eight hostages released Saturday night were quoted by a private security guard as saying that 50 to 54 people were left behind.

Dramatic Operation

An AFP correspondent at the scene said two helicopters hovered overhead and the crackle of gunfire was intermittently heard as the troops secured the roof of the six-storey structure before slipping into the building.

The landing by some 40 troops came around three hours after a bout of intense firing with automatic and heavy weapons appeared to signal the start of the operation to free the hostages before the shooting tapered off.

Some 60 residents had been evacuated from the sprawling walled compound in armored vehicles and ambulances to a hotel.

The violence has been blamed on presumed sympathizers of the Al-Qaeda network, and a statement purported to be from the group claimed responsibility, although its authenticity could not be confirmed.

This is the second time in less than a month that militants struck at oil-linked installations in assaults simultaneously targeting Westerners.

On May 1, gunmen went on a shooting rampage at a petrochemical plant in the Red Sea port of Yanbu, killing six Westerners.

A seventh Western expatriate -- a German caterer with the Saudi national carrier -- was shot dead in the capital Riyadh on May 22.

Last November, 17 people, including five children, were killed and 122 others injured in a suicide bombing that ripped through a residential compound west of Riyadh.

The deadly explosion came six months after similar blasts that hit three residential complexes in the Saudi capital, killing some 90 people, including up to 12 Americans.