Posted on 07/21/2004 5:52:17 AM PDT by happygrl
Edited on 07/21/2004 9:02:34 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The head of slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and decapitated by militants in Saudi Arabia last month, was found by security forces during a raid that targeted the Saudi al-Qaida chief. Two militants were killed, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said Johnson's head was found after a search of one of three locations after the raid late Tuesday that hit the home of Saudi al-Qaida leader Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi. Weapons, including an anti-aircraft SAM-7 missile, chemicals, video cameras and cash were among items seized from the location.
In a statement broadcast on Saudi al-Ekhbariya television, the Interior Ministry said the head was found in a freezer in an apartment. The body was not found.
The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued a statement saying the Saudi authorities had informed it that they had found "what they believe to be the head of Paul Johnson."
The statement said the consular section was in the process of notifying Johnson's family in order to identify the head.
Johnson, a 49-year-old engineer who had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade, was kidnapped June 12 by militants in Riyadh who followed through on a threat to kill him if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. An al-Qaida group claiming responsibility posted an Internet message that showed grisly photographs of a beheaded body on June 17. Later, video of the beheading was posted.
Hours after the pictures of the beheading appeared on the internet, Saudi security forces shot and killed Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, alleged mastermind of Johnson's kidnapping and beheading.
Last week, U.S. authorities announced the search for Johnson's body had been called off.
Johnson's son in Florida, Paul Johnson III, 28, had been pressing U.S. officials to do more to find his father's body.
Johnson was an engineer for Lockheed Martin who worked on Apache helicopters. He grew up in Eagleswood Township, New Jersey.
Earlier, an Interior Ministry official said authorities were holding the wife and three children of al-Aoofi, thought to be al-Moqrin's successor, after the raid in which two militants were killed and three others wounded.
One of the dead militants, identified by the Interior Ministry as Issa Saad Mohammed bin Oushan, is on the Saudi government's list of wanted militants. The statement did not name the wounded.
Pan-Arab news stations have reported that al-Aoofi may be among the casualties.
The Saudi Interior Ministry official, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency, said three members of the security forces were wounded in the gunbattle which erupted when security forces came under "heavy fire" from hand and rocket-propelled grenades while inspecting a residence suspected of being used by militants.
Another group of militants fired on policemen engaging the first group of militants in an attempt to distract members of the security forces, the Interior Ministry official said. Authorities are still pursuing those gunmen.
The shootout was the most serious since Saudi forces shot dead al-Moqrin.
King Fahd last month offered militants amnesty if they turned themselves in before Friday. He said he wouldn't seek the death penalty for those who surrendered.
Four militants have come forward, and security forces have stepped up efforts to capture the rest.
During the past year, Saudi Arabia has been rocked by suicide bombings, gunbattles and kidnappings targeting foreign workers. The attacks have been blamed on al-Qaida and sympathizers of the anti-Western terror network headed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). Al-Qaida wants to topple the Saudi royal family and replace it with its own Islamic government.
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Update: Saudis find head of slain US hostage in a fridge
WAKE UP WORLD - THIS IS WHAT THE ISLAMOSAVAGES ARE.
I am sorry; but this just seems to be too much. They surely can ID Johnson, as can his family.
I know the protocol here; but still think this is way too much to expect.
Remember reading this; but not seeing photo. . .as gruesome as they are; there is no better way to show the world 'who and what' we are dealing with.
And to another point; no better way to show America, who the Democrat-Liberal-Left has aligned themselves with.
I can't put on this screen what I'd like to do to them all. Time to make them pay!
Bump. . .
RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia announced that the head of slain US hostage Paul Johnson had been found in a refigerator in a house targeted during an overnight raid in Riyadh.
"Paul Johnson's head was found in a refrigerator" during a late-night raid on a house in the Saudi capital, said a ministry statement, carried by official media.
Johnson was kidnapped in the Saudi capital on June 12. Six days later Islamist websites posted gruesome pictures of his beheading, claimed by "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula".
The statement also said police found rocket-propelled grenades, SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles, vast quantities of ammunition and 360,000 riyals (96,000 dollars) in the same house.
It was not clear if the house where Johnson's head was found was the same site raided by security forces late Tuesday in northern Riyadh, where they clashed with militants, killing two and wounding and arresting three others.
The gunbattle erupted after security men stormed the suspect house in the King Fahd neighbourhood, where they also arrested the wife and three children of the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in the Gulf, Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi.
Oufi, a 38-year-old former police officer, is number four on the kingdom's most wanted list. He reportedly succeeded Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, who was killed by security forces along with three associates shortly after the websites posted the pictures of Johnson's beheading, which he claimed.
The ministry identified the two killed Tuesday night as Issa bin Saad al-Oshen and Mojeb Abu Rass al-Dosari. The former figured on the kingdom's wanted list.
The US embassy in Riyadh said earlier this week that the involvement of US experts in the search for Johnson's body was drawing to a close without success.
SPA reported, however, that the search continues to locate Johnson's body.
The authorities have launched a massive campaign to track down those behind attacks which have killed some 90 people and wounded hundreds since May 2003.
Just a couple of many many examples of the terror: More recently a couple million Sudanese Christians dead, enslaved, raped, ad nauseum, and a little more distantly - mass genocide of Christians in Turkey by Muslim Turks.
Whadda bunch.
Nobody who stores a decapitated human head in a refrigerator can be considered really human. "Ghouls", perhaps, but not human.
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