Briton killed in Riyadh; Saudi suspect in custody

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A British man was shot and killed Thursday and a Saudi citizen arrested in the attack, the Interior Ministry said.

The British man, an employee of a British aviation and aerospace company, was in his car and waiting at a stop light in Riyadh, the capital, when he was shot, the ministry statement said. He died immediately.

BAE Systems, the man's employer, said the victim was Robert Denith, who was 37.

"We don't know what the motive is. The Saudi authorities are dealing with it," said company spokesman Walid Abukhaled.

Security officials chased and caught a man identified as Saud bin Ali bin Nasser, 30, and confiscated "the weapon used in the shooting," the statement said.

A British diplomat in Riyadh, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the shooting.

He said the man worked for British defense giant BAE Systems.

Groups sympathetic to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden are suspected by Western diplomats of being behind a string of attacks in Saudi Arabia since late 2000, although the government has blamed gangs fighting over the illegal liquor trade. Bin Laden was formerly a Saudi citizen.

Bin Laden has been calling for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family, questioning its Islamic credentials and demanding the Americans leave. He was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994.

Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis.

On Wednesday, Britain said upgraded its travel warnings on some Middle East countries, advising its citizens in Iraq to leave the country and warning against travel to Kuwait, Israel and the Palestinian territories. It cited "increasing regional tension and of the risk of terrorist action."

About 150,000 U.S. troops and more than 40,000 British troops are in the region, preparing for a possible strike against Iraq. The United States and Britain say Iraq has not rid itself of weapons of mass destruction and is not cooperating with U.N. inspectors trying to make sure it has. The inspectors are trying to verify Iraq's claims that it no longer holds such weapons.

On Feb 7, a British man who also worked for BAE Systems was shot at in Riyadh by three Saudi men following his car. The man was not hit but was cut by flying glass.

No arrests have been made in that attack.

A 35-year-old British banker was killed by a car bomb in Riyadh on June 20, 2002.

On Sept. 29, 2002, a German man in Riyadh was killed in a car explosion that Saudi authorities blamed on gang rivalries over the illegal alcohol trade.

Bombings in Riyadh on Nov. 17 and 22, 2000, killed one Briton and injured four other foreigners. A Canadian, a Briton and a Belgian are being held on suspicion of involvement in the bombings, which the Saudi government linked to the black market.