American killed in apparent terrorist hit in Saudi Arabia

An American employee of a U.S. firm that’s training the Saudi National Guard was shot to death in an apparent terrorist hit outside his Riyadh villa Tuesday, ratcheting up a wave of violence against Western expatriates. The slaying came just three days after suspected al-Qaida militants fired on a BBC Television crew in a south-central Riyadh neighborhood, killing the camera operator and gravely wounding a senior correspondent. The strikes suggest that Saudi Arabia’s terrorist network has shifted tactics, as operatives begin to target individuals. Pat Lang, a former Middle Eastern chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in Washington that al-Qaida presumably considered the killing “an attack on a U.S. military target.” The victim was identified as Robert C. Jacobs, 62, of Murphysboro, Ill., a graphics designer for the Virginia-based Vinnell Corp., a Northrop Grumman subsidiary contracted by the U.S. Army to train the Saudi National Guard. Jacobs was the 13th American killed in a yearlong succession of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. Full Story