al-Khubar
Port of Saudi Arabia.
Located in the Eastern Province, on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, al-Khubar (also al-Khobar) was founded in 1923 as a fishing and pearling village by members of the Dawasir tribe fleeing from Bahrain. It thrived as a terminal for the first crude oil that was shipped from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain for refining, until a deep-water port was constructed at nearby al-Dammam. A causeway and four-lane highway link Bahrain and Saudi Arabia at al-Khubar. In June 1996 an explosive device attached to a vehicle was detonated outside an al-Khubar apartment complex in which U.S military personnel lived; nineteen U.S. servicemen were killed and 400 persons (including 109 Americans and 147 Saudis) were injured. No group or person claimed responsibility for the attack, but by 1998 it was widely assumed to be the work of operatives affiliated with Osama bin Ladin's al-Qaʿida group.
Bibliography
Chapman, Simon. "Saudi Arabia: History." In The MiddleEast and North Africa 1999, 45th edition. London: Europa Publications, 1998.
— LES ORDEMAN
UPDATED BY ERIC HOOGLUND
