Eyewitness reports from Saudi city

BBC News Online users have been e-mailing in with accounts of the violence in Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia.

One resident of the Oasis compound, who hid in a cupboard and phoned relatives in the US from her mobile phone, gave a graphic account of events there on Saturday.

Her brother-in-law, Oliver Alabaster, told BBC News Online: "She awoke to see black-hooded men enter a house across the street. She then saw her neighbour run out (of) the back door, and then saw her shot in the legs.

"Now the gunmen are holed up in the house next to hers, and there is continued gunfire between the attackers and the security forces.

I heard five or six shots and saw a couple of guys fall over in the distance - I thought I'd better get out of there Colin Hewetson expatriate Send us your comments

"Her greatest fear is that there may be more militants roaming the compound, that bullets could penetrate the walls where she is hiding, and that they could shoot their way into her house."

British expatriate Colin Hewetson told BBC News Online he saw some of the violence as he drove to work on Saturday morning.

"I heard five or six shots and saw a couple of guys fall over in the distance," he said. "I thought I'd better get out of there, so I turned around and headed back to my compound."

"The light armoured personnel carriers, which normally patrol the area, were dashing all over the place. Soldiers were fanning out around the building and closing off access on both sides of the dual carriageway."

'Devastating'

Ali, another Khobar resident who was driving to work, saw police in a car shooting at gunmen in another vehicle.

"They both exchanged heavy firing and then (I saw the gunmen) throw a bag containing a man's body and run away," he wrote.

They went into the company offices and fired around randomly Ali H

"I was shocked seeing firing for the first time in my life. This is totally devastating for me."

Ali H, from London, received a call from his father, who lives on the compound.

"The gunmen went into my father's neighbour's flat, a Sudanese guy, and asked him where the Americans were. He didn't know and they left him unharmed," Ali said.

"They went into the company offices, in the compound, and fired around randomly, then escaped."

Hostages

Expatriate Diana Ras-Rongen was sitting outside her home when she heard gunshots. When a hostage-taking was reported she became worried about a Dutch couple living in the Oasis compound.

"My neighbour called them to ask if there was a hostage situation going on and they said they were actually the hostages!" she wrote in her e-mail.

"The other residents of the compound were brought to a safe location where soldiers are protecting them."