New beheading tape surfaces
2004-07-17 22:14
Cairo, Egypt - Videotape of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced on Saturday on an Internet site known for carrying militants' statements, three days after U.S. authorities announced the search for Paul M Johnson, jun's body was ending without recovery of his remains.
Still photographs of Johnson's beheading had been posted on June 19 on some of the same militant Islamic forums that were providing links to the newly released video footage. The 49-year-old engineer for US defence contractor Lockheed Martin had been kidnapped on June 12.
The video, which ran almost two minutes and included footage of tanks and destroyed homes, apparently in Iraq, carried the title "The Voice of Jihad: Get the infidels out of the Arabian Peninsula." Voice of Jihad is the name of a periodical issued on the Internet twice monthly by the al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia, which claimed Johnson's killing.
A man, his head wrapped in a red and white checkered headscarf and his face not visible, is seen decapitating Johnson, lying on his stomach on a mattress, with a knife, then holding his head up for the camera before setting it on his back. Legs and arms of others present were visible.
One of the killers wiped the blood off the knife on the orange jumpsuit Johnson was wearing.
Hours after the still photographs were released last month, Saudi security forces shot dead Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin, the leader of the al-Qaida cell in the kingdom.
On Wednesday, US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James C Oberwetter, released a statement saying the FBI's search for Johnson's remains was near completion without the body being recovered. FBI experts sent to the kingdom to help with the search began leaving and, a day later, the US State Department confirmed the search had ended.
Johnson's son in Florida, Paul Johnson III, 28, was pressing US officials to do more to find his father's body.
Since May last year, Saudi Arabia has suffered a series of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, gunbattles and kidnappings. Many attacks have targeted foreign workers in an attempt to undermine the economy, which depends heavily on expatriate labour. Al-Qaida, led by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, aspires to topple the Saudi royal family and replace it with an Islamic government.
- AP