ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. – The sole American killed in a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia (search) over the weekend was a former Kentucky resident who has been in the oil-producing nation since 1976, his brother said.
Charles Floyd of Stone Mountain, Ga., confirmed that his brother, Frank Floyd, was one of the 22 people killed in the attack by Al Qaeda (search) militants on a residential complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
While he had lived in the Middle East for decades, he spent part of his childhood in Elizabethtown and graduated in 1963 from the now-closed Elizabethtown Catholic High School, friends and family members said Monday.
The family eventually moved away from Hardin County, Charles Floyd said.
Frank Floyd left for Saudi Arabia in 1976. For the past 15 years, he had worked with Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd., a company that provides contract workers for oil companies, and most recently was deputy general manager of marketing, The News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown reported Tuesday.
Al Qaeda militants stormed the upscale Oasis residential compound on Saturday, killing some residents and taking others hostage. The standoff ended 25 hours later when helicopter-borne Saudi commandos attacked the militants. It was the worst terrorist act on Saudi soil in a year and the second in May to target its oil industry.
The 22 dead included Indians, Filipinos, Saudis, Sri Lankans, a Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and a 10-year-old Egyptian. Twenty-five people of various nationalities were injured, and security forces evacuated 242 people from the compound, including residents not held hostage but trapped inside.
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