The casualties came from Yemen, Sudan, Philippines, India and Sri Lanka. The attack underscores the ongoing vulnerabilities of Westerners to threats and terrorist actions in Jeddah and environs. In a communiqué posted in online publications such as "Sawt al-Jihad" (Voice of Jihad) and "Mu'askar al-Battar" (Al-Battar Training Camp), Al-Qaeda hinted at the symbolic nature of the U.S. Consulate attack, stating: "Know that the Mujahideen are determined to continue on their path, and they will not be weakened by what has happened to them." Terrorist activities have persisted from 2004 to the present day. In 2004 there was an unsuccessful shooting attack on a U.S. Marine visiting the Saudi American Bank and an attempt to simultaneously explode car bombs at Saudi American Bank and Saudi British Bank branches in Jeddah on the anniversary of the 2001 "9-11" terrorist attacks on the U.S. On 26 August 2012, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry announced that terrorists were arrested in Jeddah who had been preparing explosives for attacks within the kingdom. Roads and highways within and exiting the city are frequently clogged with traffic. Mass transit is rare and planning is nascent; most Jeddawi adults have at least one car. Motorcycles are rare on the roads, further impacting the traffic patterns. Days immediately preceding and following the holy days are particularly noisome and cost hundreds of thousands many hours because of traffic jams. The Saudi Gazette reports that there is a plan in the works to tackle the traffic issue. A reported 3 billion Saudi Riyals will be put into constructing flyovers and underpasses in an effort to expedite traffic. The plan is scheduled to take about five years from its start to finish. Prior to the construction of a waste treatment plant, Jeddah's waste water was disposed of by either discharge into the sea or via absorption into deep underground pits. As the city grew, a proper waste management plant was created and the built up part of the city was connected with a sewer system by the 1970s. However, even with the ever-increasing population, the original sewer system has hardly been expanded. The original plant cannot cope with the amount of waste inundating it daily. As a result, some untreated sewage is discharged directly into the sea and the entire northern part of the city remains completely unconnected to the sewage system, instead relying on septic tanks. This has been responsible for the large number of sewage tankers.