Saudi Arabia vowed yesterday to strike with an iron fist against militants who staged an unprecedented attack on a Saudi energy site this week and said it was making every effort to protect foreigners.

"The Saudi leadership and people affirm their determination to strike with an iron fist in fighting this deviant group in order to uproot this wicked disease from the body of our nation," Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told a news conference.

"The deviant groups target at random and have no aim but to kill, but despite this the government is doing all it can to protect all residents," he added.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed two

Americans, two Britons and an Australian in the Red Sea town of Yanbu. The gunmen dragged the corpse of one American through the streets, but were later shot dead by police.

The Saudi interior minister has blamed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for the attack.

AP adds: The US ambassador traveled to this Saudi oil-industry city Monday with a simple message for the gathered Americans: Go home. We cannot protect you.

Huddled in a meeting room in a Holiday Inn still pocked with bullet holes after the latest in a string of attacks on Westerners killed two Americans and four others, many said they would heed his words.

The first to go were among the 90 foreign employees of ABB Lummus

Global Inc., a Houston-based oil contractor whose offices were attacked Saturday by four gunmen trying to encourage Saudis to join the resistance against the US occupation of Iraq.

The first ABB employees all Europeans boarded a van for the Yanbu airport Monday night.

"Money is money, but it's not worth your life," said Armando Rosiglioni, 63, of Venice, Italy, who arrived in Yanbu 10 days ago on a three-month contract. "I don't want to take a stupid risk."

He said a charter flight would take the employees to the Red Sea port of Jiddah, 220 miles to the south, where they were to take commercial flights to their destinations on Tuesday.