At least a dozen University of South Carolina students from the Middle East have left school since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, and one former student was detained by the FBI in Atlanta as he tried to leave the country, university officials said.

Graduate student Wafaa Alghamdi and her brother were trying to leave the country after Alghamdi filed a harassment complaint against four male students on Sept. 12.

Although none of the students at the school are from Afghanistan, the home of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, about 12 of 83 students from Arabic countries have gone home, school spokesman Russ McKinney said.

Four men approached Alghamdi and verbally assaulted her and tried to remove her hijab, an Islamic head covering, according to a police report.

University police said no arrests had been made.

When Alghamdi and her brother tried to return to their homeland of Saudi Arabia, her brother was detained by the FBI. The bureau is not commenting on anyone who may be detained.

``It made me very sad,'' said Salam, a Muslim American who knows the pair. ``She told me she had waited four years to get this scholarship. Now, it's fallen through the cracks.''

``We're really sad about those people who lost their lives, we're really hurt about the attack on America, and we're really hurt that people who claim our faith did this,'' she said. ``They brought our faith down.''

The Saudi Arabian government said it has offered citizens in the United States a plane ticket home.

``We issued a notice to students in the U.S. to be cautious,'' said a Saudi Arabian embassy spokesman who asked not to be identified because of security concerns.