A Lingering Horror
By Lisa McCubbinFor the Journal Star
Mohammad, Elita and Olivia Kayyaly in 2002.
This is their only family portrait.
The Kayyaly's apartment after Al-Qaida terrorists attacked on May 12, 2003.
Olivia Mohammad Grace Al-Kayyaly
"I still don't believe it," she says as tears well up in her blue eyes. "I miss Mohammad so much every day."
Mohammad al-Kayyaly was a Bradley University graduate, an Americanized citizen and later an Illinois Department of Transportation engineer. And, on May 12, 2003, he was one of nine Americans killed by al-Qaida terrorists in an attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His wife and Peoria-born child were spared.
Three simultaneous blasts on Western housing compounds killed 35 people that day. The story made headlines for a few days, but most Americans paid little attention to what appeared to be just another round of suicide bombings in the Middle East.
"People care more about the runaway bride and the Michael Jackson case than what's going on around the world," said Kayyaly, who lives with her daugher in Washington.
America's seeming lack of interest in world affairs is especially frustrating to Kayyaly because her husband spent his life trying to educate people about the need to understand other cultures.
"He was proud to be an American, but just as proud to be an Arab," she said.
Mohammad's death ended a love story that began 17 years earlier when Elita, a soft-spoken Midwestern Christian, met him, a Palestinian-born Muslim, at Bradley University in a class on international business. Mohammad made it his mission to make his peers understand why they needed to know about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"He knew the value of the freedom of speech because he didn't have that in his own world," Kayyaly said.
Mohammad received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1988, the same year he married Elita, and a master's degree in 1990, the same year he became a U.S. citizen. After completing his master's, he spent four years as an IDOT engineer.
In 1996, the Kayyalys moved to Riyadh where Mohammad had taken a high-paying job with a construction company. He dreamed of owning his own business one day, and the salary he could make overseas would put him well on his way.
The Kayyalys lived in a second-floor apartment overlooking a swimming pool in the center of the Al Hamra Oasis Village Compound on the outskirts of Riyadh. Of the many Western compounds in Saudi Arabia's capital, Al Hamra was one of the most luxurious, with perfectly manicured lawns, lush landscaping and beautiful swimming pools. The Kayyalys liked the vibrant mix of nationalities, cultures and religions, which included Americans, Arabs, Europeans, Muslims and Christians.
When Elita learned she was pregnant, the couple arranged to return to Peoria, where their daughter would be born an American and given a name that celebrates both Christianity and Islam. Olivia Mohammad Grace al-Kayyaly was born on Oct. 11, 2002. The family returned to Riyadh a month later.
On May 12, 2003, new mother Elita was exhausted. Even though a group of pilots and flight attendants was partying around the pool just below her apartment, Elita had no trouble falling asleep after putting Olivia in her crib.
Shortly before 11:30 pm, she was jolted awake by a deafening explosion.
"I could feel all these pellets starting to hit me. First it was like a rainstorm, then they came like a hailstorm," Elita recalled.
The sliding glass door next to her bed had shattered on top of her. Its metal frame ripped from the concrete wall. Chunks of concrete and bits of molten metal poured into the gaping hole in her room, burying her in a blanket of glass and debris.
"I screamed for Mohammad, but he wasn't there," Elita said, choking back tears.
Mohammad, an avid body builder, had gone to the compound gym just a block from their apartment for a late-night sauna.
While he was there, three vehicles filled with Saudi terrorists stopped at the compound's entry gate behind the car of an Al Hamra resident. As the security gate was raised for the resident, the terrorists shot at the unarmed guards with AK-47s, then sped through the open gate.
The young Saudi men randomly shot at couples and families taking late night strolls as they navigated the compound's streets.
"Allah Akbar! God is great! We're going to kill all you bastards!" the terrorists yelled as they began their assault.
As he left the gym, Mohammad would have heard the gunfire and the ranting in his native language. He was running toward his wife and baby daughter just as one of the vehicles--an American-made SUV--stopped in front of the pool where the party was in full swing. In an instant, the vehicle exploded. Mohammad never made it back to his wife and child.
"People who saw our apartment the next morning couldn't believe anyone inside would have survived," Elita said.
Olivia was found on the floor under a pile of concrete chunks in her bedroom and the remnants of her crib were found outside. Amazingly, she had only bruises and a burn on the palm of one hand.
Elita had been lying on her right side facing the window. When the bomb went off, her left side was nearly ripped apart. She had to have more than 200 stitches and still suffers from back problems.
But it's the emotional trauma that's hardest to overcome, she said. Two years later, Elita acknowledges being severely depressed; sudden loud noises send her into hysterics.
She maintains a close relationship with Mohammad's family, who live in Jordan, and is considering returning to the Middle East so Olivia can learn about her Arab heritage, of which her father was so proud.
Despite the horror that lingers in her memory, Elita does not want people to judge all Arabs or Muslims on the actions of a few.
Mohammad also prided himself on being an Arab ambassador. And, in order for his legacy to live on, Elita challenges the Arab community to follow her husband's example.
"It's time the Arabs stop flirting with the terrorists," she said. "They've allowed the terrorists to hijack their religion, so now it's up to them to be more vocal in protesting against these extremists and join America in fighting the war on terror. We cannot continue to let terrorists be representatives of Islam or of the Middle East."
