By K. J. Mushung

Earlier this month, The Middle East Times reported that violence had erupted yet again against a compound in Saudi Arabia housing Westerners. Many people probably remember hearing about the bombs that exploded at American military complexes in Dhahran several years ago, killing 26 people. But this attack was different. It was against a community of civilians.

A Saudi medical student opened fire on a compound housing mostly British and Americans in Asir before Saudi military guards wounded him. One British Aerospace Systems employee was wounded, and no motive for the attack had been discovered as of press time.

Since the Dhahran incident, security had been increased at all complexes housing Westerners, who usually live separate from Arabs, in the Kingdom. I know. I used to live in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Every time-and I mean every single time with no exceptions-my husband or driver (women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia) and I would return to our compound, we had to stop several hundred meters from the entrance, and be searched. Not our persons, mind you, but our car. Why search us at all if we're Western? Because whenever we go somewhere and park, an extremist who sees Americans getting out of the car may attached a bomb to it while we're shopping in the souks or eating in restaurants. We'd then unknowingly drive the bomb back to our compound where it would detonate, probably killing other Americans, as well as Brits, Australians, et cetera.

Upon reaching our compound we'd stop at the first of two gates where there would be several guards from the Saudi Royal Air Force, all heavily armed, and a Toyota pickup truck with a 50mm machine gun attached to the cab top. The guards would order us to pop the hood of the car and open up the back trunk. One guard would search the trunk and go through any parcels we brought back from our errands (since a shopkeeper could put a deadly mechanism in our shopping bags with any purchased items). Another guard would check the engine area, while yet another would walk around our vehicle with a tilted mirror on a long stick. This device enabled him to look underneath our car without getting down on hands and knees. After passing that inspection, we'd then proceed along a concrete barrier, past many security cameras to the second gate where our pass, which stated that we were residents of that particular compound, would be noted before the gate was opened for us to enter. It sounds like a hassle. And it is if you are in a hurry (or have to go to the bathroom!). But it became habit and didn't bother me because I knew the guards and gates were there for our protection, as they were for the residents of the compound in Asir. .

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