Monday, September 27, 2004
Elder of ZiyonJIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 26 (Reuters) - A French technician for a defense contractor was shot dead here on Sunday, in an attack security officials said might have been carried out by Islamic militants.
The police and hospital employees said the shooting happened around 1 a.m. near a supermarket. The victim, Laurent Barbot, a 41-year-old resident of Jidda who was a technician for the French defense and electronics company Thales, was shot twice while in his car. A security official in the Interior Ministry, Brig. Gen. Mansur Turki, said, 'There is a strong possibility that this is a terrorist attack,' and speculated that militants loyal to Al Qaeda might have been involved.
Mr. Barbot is the latest Westerner with links to defense companies to be killed in this country.
