American hostage killed

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — An al-Qaida cell beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., posting grisly photographs today of the hostage’s severed head. Hours later, Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the leader of the terrorist group, according to Saudi and U.S. officials.

President Bush vowed that “America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs.”

In a swift retaliation shortly after discovering Johnson’s body, Saudi police swooped down on the al-Malz neighborhood in central Riyadh and exchanged fire with al-Qaida suspects. Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the reputed leader of al-Qaida in the kingdom, was killed along with two other militants, Saudi officials said.

A U.S. 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. In a video posted on the Internet Tuesday, a hooded al-Moqrin held an assault rifle and shouted demands for the release of al-Qaida prisoners as a blindfolded Johnson sat in a chair.

A senior Saudi official in Washington said a second operation aimed at al-Qaida supporters or suspects was under way.

The executioners’ photographs and statement, in the name of Fallujah Brigade of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared on a Web site hours 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-Qaida’s leader, is a Saudi exile.

“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-Qaida statement said.

“Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles,” the statement said.

Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.

At the top of the list of suspects was al-Moqrin, believed to have been involved in the May attacks on housing compounds in Riyadh, as well as other attacks in the kingdom. Al-Moqrin’s group has claimed responsibility for most attacks against Westerners in Saudi Arabia in the past two months.

Bush, who learned of Johnson’s death after a speech to troops at Fort Lewis, Wash., said the killing “shows the evil nature of the enemy we face.”

“They’re trying to get us to retreat from the world,” Bush said. “America will not retreat. America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs. May God bless Paul Johnson.”

After Johnson’s death was reported, his family was in seclusion at a town house in Galloway Township, N.J., where they have been holding a vigil.

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