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35-541: Among CMATT's goals were developing a force that was: Additionally, CMATT advisors established (or reestablished) Iraqi Army Infantry, logistics, administration, medical services, signals, and military police schools. On June 25, 2003, the U.S. Army, acting on behalf of the CPA, awarded the Vinnell Corporation a $ 48.0 million "cost plus fixed fee" contract to train the first nine battalions, or 9,000 recruits, of

70-615: A 44,000 person-strong New Iraq Corps, which quickly became the "New Iraqi Army". Separately, a $ 30.0 million task order was issued under the existing Logistics Civil Augmentation Program for logistical support to the NIA training program. CMATT's main recruiting stations were located in Baghdad , Basra and Mosul . The most desired recruits were those who had prior military service or are skilled in specific professions such as first aid, heavy equipment operation, food service and truck driving. "In

105-555: A suicide truck bomb detonated outside the Al-Mohaya housing compound in Laban Valley, West of Riyadh, killing at least 17 people and wounding 122, among them 36 children. The majority of the casualties were foreigners, many of them workers from countries such as Egypt and Lebanon . Other injured victims were people from India , Bangladesh , Philippines , and Eritrea . (The US State Department had warned of further attacks in

140-510: A two-ton truck bomb outside the area killing themselves, two security guards and injuring many others. The final target was the Vinnell compound. The terrorists approached the gate in a sedan, with a pickup truck carrying the explosives following. Those in the sedan shot the Saudi soldiers guarding the gate and then opened the gate for the pickup truck. The truck was driven to the front of one of

175-614: The New Iraqi Army in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Defense . The contract was for nine battalions, with an option to extend the training to 27 battalions. Much of the actual training, however, was subcontracted to Military Professional Resources Inc. , Science Applications International Corporation (recruiting stations, with a poster campaign), and smaller firms including Eagle Group International (which appears to have provided medical training), Omega Training Group, and Worldwide Language Resources. There were early indications that

210-762: The Pan-American Highway , as well as Dodger Stadium and portions of the Grand Coulee Dam . It had also diversified into production of steel and into mining operations. Vinnell also performed construction for the U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam and/or similar Federal Government organizations such as the Navy's Officer in Charge of Construction RVN in Vietnam in the 1960s. The company moved into operations, maintenance, and training largely in

245-536: The Saudi Arabian National Guard as a joint Saudi/American owned company called Vinnell Arabia since the 1970s. Vinnell Arabia was bombed on May 12, 2003 by Saudi terrorists. Eight Americans and two Filipinos were killed. Another employee was stalked from the military hospital to his home in Riyadh and assassinated on the street. Vinnell Corporation was given the initial contract to recreate

280-574: The Vinnell Corporation Compound. On 8 November, a bomb was detonated outside the Al-Mohaya housing compound west of Riyadh, killing at least 17 people and wounding 122, mostly Arab foreigners. The bombings have been attributed to Islamic extremists as part of a campaign against Westerners and Westernization in Saudi Arabia. They are thought to have been sparked by the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia during

315-1020: The 1970s. In 1975, the company undertook the Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program . In 1979, it moved into the Job Corps arena with the operation of the Shreveport (LA) center and later operated the Hubert H. Humphrey center in St. Paul, MN ; the Roswell (NM) center; the Laredo (TX) center; the Joliet (IL) center; the Gainesville (FL) center; the North Texas (formerly McKinney) center; and

350-630: The 1991 Gulf War with Iraq. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had begun in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in Riyadh and other cities. As early as February 2003, the US State Department issued travel warnings that Westerners could be targeted by terrorists. The warnings followed an explosion at a private residence where weapons, explosives, cash, and false documents were subsequently discovered. In early May 2003,

385-544: The Kingdom on the day of the attack. ) According to the Saudi Press Agency, suicide bombers posing as guards drove into the compound in a vehicle that "looked like a police car", and after an exchange of gunfire with security forces blew themselves up—the compound allegedly chosen by them because those occupied by Western expatriates were too well guarded. However, journalist John R. Bradley noted that none of

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420-763: The London-based MBI International and Partners subsidiary Jadawel International , the Al Hamra Oasis Village, and the Vinnell Corporation Compound, occupied by a Virginia -based defense contractor that was training the Saudi National Guard . All contained large numbers of Americans, Westerners, and non-Saudi Arabs. Around 11:15 pm, multiple gunmen infiltrated the Al Hamra Oasis Village, a site inhabited mainly by Westerners. They killed

455-471: The US State Department warned that terrorists were in the final stages of planning terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government also warned of this and issued an alert for 19 men believed to be members of Al-Qaeda planning attacks. Late on 12 May, several vehicles manned by heavily armed assault teams arrived at three Riyadh compounds: The Dorrat Al Jadawel, a compound owned by

490-747: The Whitney Young center in Shelbyville, KY . In 1992, the company was acquired by BDM International , which was in turn acquired by TRW Inc. in 1997. TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002. Riyadh compound bombings Two major bombings took place in residential compounds in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia on 12 May 2003, 39 people were killed, and over 160 wounded (mostly Westerners) when bombs went off at three compounds in Riyadh—Dorrat Al Jadawel, Al Hamra Oasis Village, and

525-479: The compound wall. According to American intelligence sources, the bomber's operation "depended on a significant level of 'insider' knowledge of the compounds." According to one American military official quoted by the Daily Telegraph , it took the bombers (...) 30 seconds to a minute to get from the gate to the housing block. They had to know where the switches were to operate the gates after attacking

560-469: The early phases of the effort, it took CMATT 1,000 recruits to produce an active battalion of 757 soldiers." Soldier fallout usually occurred due to voluntary withdrawal or failure to meet training standards. Due to the demand for the initial battalions to become active as soon as possible, the first four battalions' officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted soldiers are being trained simultaneously (in separate groups). By late January 2004 training for

595-412: The enlisted soldiers of the first three battalions had been completed. Notable differences in training between CMATT and former training under Saddam 's regime include schooling in human rights, the laws of land warfare, and tolerance in a multi-ethnic team. Based on the philosophy used by the U.S. military to boost its own size in response to World War II — that an army can be built faster by focusing on

630-518: The entire toll from the attacks to 39. More than 160 other people were injured, including more than two dozen Americans. In October 2003, as-Sahab released the videotaped wills of the bombers Abu Umar al-Ta'ifi (also known as Hamza al-Ansari), Muhammad bin Shazzaf al-Shahri (also known as Abu Tareq al-Aswad) and Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab al-Maqit, recorded two weeks before the attacks. On 8 November,

665-599: The form of weapon systems maintenance and management consultancy. Vinnell Corporation is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation. They are also party to other joint-venture companies, e.g. Vinnell-Brown & Root (VBR). The Vinnell Corporation was mentioned in Fahrenheit 9/11 for its connections to the Carlyle Group , George W. Bush , and the Saudi Royal family. They conducted training of portions of

700-483: The guards at the gate and proceeded to open fire at residents, killing Westerners, non-Saudi Arabs, and Saudis and the assailants then detonated a car bomb. The next attack was at the Jadawel compound, though the assailants failed to gain access to the compound due to the prominent level of security. There was a shootout between security personnel and terrorists on approach to the front gates. The terrorists then detonated

735-480: The guards. They then drove at breakneck speed with a bomb weighing nearly 200 kilograms to the most intensely populated location in the complex and blew it up. "Several bombers" were wearing uniforms of the National Guard to help them get into the three bombed complexes. The intelligence officials believe that al-Qaeda has infiltrated even the elite National Guard, which is involved in compound security. In

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770-1174: The identification was based on DNA found at the scene. The names were Al-Qaeda member Khaled Muhammad bin Muslim Al-Arawi Al-Juhani , Muhammed Othman Abdullah Al-Walidi Al-Shehri, Hani Saeed Ahmad Al Abdul-Karim Al-Ghamdi, Jubran Ali Ahmad Hakami Khabrani, Khaled bin Ibrahim Mahmoud, Mehmas bin Muhammed Mehmas Al-Hawashleh Al-Dosari, Muhammed bin Shadhaf Ali Al-Mahzoum Al-Shehri, Hazem Muhammed Saeed Kashmiri, Majed Abdullah Sa'ad bin Okail, Bandar bin Abdul-Rahman Menawer Al-Rahimi Al-Mutairi, Abdul-Karim Muhammed Jubran Yazji, and Abdullah Farres bin Jufain Al-Rahimi Al-Mutairi. Abdul Rahman Jabarah

805-494: The immediate aftermath of the May bombing, a large number of Western expatriates left Saudi Arabia. Airlines reported a "flood of bookings for flights from Saudi Arabia to Britain and America". There were also bomb scares and an evacuation of one compound near those attacked and at the landmark Faisaliya Tower . The attacks were denounced by then-US President George W. Bush as "ruthless murder" and by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah as

840-766: The new Iraqi air units. CMATT was dissolved after the establishment of MNSTC-I in June–July 2004. The initial aim for the New Iraqi Army, of developing U.S. style mechanized divisions to defend the country from invasion from its surrounding neighbors, had to change to developing the necessary security forces to protect the Iraqi population from the Iraqi insurgency . It was replaced with the Coalition Army Advisory Training Team. The Air Cell

875-419: The protection of residential compounds. According to Bradley, surviving residents of the compound stated that three months before the bombing Saudi religious police accompanied by regular Saudi police, had visited them—a rare intrusion into the "refuge from Saudi morality that the compounds are supposed to provide". The police had warned the residents that their "Westernized lifestyle" was "under scrutiny". It

910-439: The residential high rises on the compound and detonated. At the time, many of the Vinnell employees were away from the compound, supporting an exercise for the National Guard. Seven Americans were killed or died of injuries the night of the attack, along with two Filipino employees. An eighth American died in hospital several days later. Some of the terrorists died when the truck bomb was detonated, and others escaped by climbing over

945-636: The security forces and government—the police car was "in fact ... a car belonging to the Saudi special security forces," and that the bomb was not detonated in suicide but by remote control, its detonators escaping unharmed. Thus, attackers dressed as policemen, driving a special security forces car, taking care not to kill any of those defending the compound, and apparently not themselves being fired upon with any degree of accuracy [meant that] There could not be greater evidence, if even only half of that proved true, that Al-Qaeda had infiltrated Saudi Arabia's military and security forces, including those entrusted with

980-477: The suicide bombers were identified by the government and that despite official reports of gunfire before the bombing—and thus presumably casualties among security forces—there were no televised visits by Interior Minister Prince Naif to homes of members of those forces, as is customary when members are killed in an attack. Bradley reports that in an alternative version of the bombing—provided to him by Saudi opposition figures with sources among disgruntled members of

1015-476: The training on its leadership rather than enlisted soldiers — CMATT pursued a similar strategy of focusing recruitment and training on commissioned and non-commissioned officers for the remaining 23 Iraqi battalions. Upon successful completion of officer training, these groups of officers were intended to form the battalion's leadership cadre, which would then be responsible, under CMATT, for overseeing its own recruitment, training, and readiness of its enlisted men. It

1050-672: The training was not going well; "too much emphasis on classroom studies of strategy and tactics and not enough on basic combat skills.." and later trainees broke when committed to action in Fallujah . As a result, the second phase was taken over by the United States Army . Vinnell Corporation was founded in 1931 in Alhambra, California , by Allan S. Vinnell, as a hauling and excavating contractor. The company grew into construction of roads and buildings and constructed portions of

1085-561: The upcoming attack to Iranian officials, who apparently took no action. However, according to an interrogation of former al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith , al-Adel and Saad were being held prisoner in Iran when the attacks took place. Saad was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009. In the compound bombings, reportedly at least 27 people died from several different countries: In addition, twelve suicide bombers died, bringing

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1120-407: The work of "monsters." Abdullah vowed to destroy the terrorist group that ordered them, and the Saudi government began a harsh crackdown on the insurgency, arresting more than 600 terrorist suspects and seizing bomb-making materials, bomb belts, and thousands of weapons. On 7 June 2003, an official Saudi statement identified twelve men as the perpetrators of this attack. According to that statement,

1155-460: Was hoped that having the Iraqi leadership train its own will overcome problems faced by CMATT's training process; namely recruitment, desertion, and unit loyalty. In 2004, a small Air Cell was established within the CMATT, made up of coalition officers, to guide the creation of the reborn Iraqi Air Force . Advisory Support Teams were formed at Basra, Kirkuk, Taji, and Talil to build capacity within

1190-507: Was killed in a gunfight with Saudi security forces, as was Zubayr Al-Rimi . Both men were believed to have had involvement in the attack. Saif al-Adel and Saad bin Laden were implicated in the attacks. According to Seth G. Jones, the bombings were planned by al Qaeda in Iran, with apparent Iranian complicity. In May 2003, then-State Department official Ryan Crocker provided information on

1225-579: Was replaced, as part of MNSTC-I, with the Coalition Air Force Transition Team, established on 18 November 2005. This article about a specific military unit is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Vinnell Corporation The Vinnell Corporation is an international private military company based in Herndon, Virginia , United States , specializing in military training, logistics, and support in

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