Beheading 'fair treatment'
2004-06-19 09:22
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - An al-Qaeda cell declaring "the infidel got his fair treatment" beheaded an American engineer and posted the grisly evidence on the internet. Soon after, Saudi officials said they had killed the mastermind of Paul M Johnson jun's kidnapping and killing - a claim denied on Saturday in a statement purportedly from the militants.
A Saudi security official said a witness took note of the license number of a car from which Johnson's body had been dumped just outside Riyadh on Friday and informed police.
Police stopped the car at a gas station in central Riyadh and a shootout ensued in which Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the reputed leader of al-Qaeda in the kingdom, Rakan Mohsen Mohammed Al Saykhan, the second most-wanted Saudi militant, and three other militants were killed, Saudi officials in Riyadh and Washington said.
Saudi officials in Washington said on condition of anonymity that five Saudi security officers were killed in the gunbattle. Two suspects escaped, said one Saudi security official who took part in the raid.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed al-Moqrin's killing. A Saudi official said forensic tests would be conducted on the body to confirm his identity.
The killing of al-Moqrin, 31, would be a coup for the Saudi government, which has been under intense pressure to halt a wave of attacks against Westerners in the kingdom.
However, a message posted on Saturday on an Islamic militant website denied al-Moqrin, 31, was killed. Its authenticity could not be verified. It appeared on an internet forum where past militant statements and claims have been posted and was similar to those in tone and appearance.
After opening with a Quranic verse that urges believers to ensure the truth of information they receive, it said some media "have been propagating the false news that Abdel Aziz al-Moqrin, God preserve him, has been killed. We would like to say that such claims, unleashed by the tyrants of Saudi Arabia, are aimed at dissuading the holy warriors and crushing their spirits."
In revenge for Apache helicopter fire
More information would be forthcoming, it said.
Johnson's severed head was shown on another website on Friday. The photographs and a statement, in the name of Fallujah Brigade of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared after Johnson's wife went on Arab television and tearfully pleaded for his release.
Johnson, who had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade, was the latest victim of an escalating campaign of violence against Westerners that aims to drive foreign workers from the kingdom and undermine the ruling royal family, hated by al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader, was stripped of his Saudi citizenship more than a decade ago.
"In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment," the al-Qaeda statement said. "Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles."
Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for the US-based defence giant Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaeda prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.
- AP