Paul Johnson

The four were gunned down at a gas station in Al-Setteen street in the Al-Malaz district in the center of the Saudi capital.

Johnson was abducted in Riyadh on June 12, the day another U.S. national was killed in the Saudi capital, as part of Al-Qaeda's campaign to drive "infidels" from the kingdom.

Islamist Web sites showed June 18 grisly pictures of Johnson beheaded and his head placed on his torso, which lay in a pool of blood.

Undeterred by the death of Muqrin, the al-Qaeda group vowed renewed "holy war" in the country.

"We will not allow a corrupt group led by deviant thought to violate the security and stability of this land," King Fahd, Saudi's ailing ruler, said June 20. "The real Muslim has nothing to do with these actions and has no sympathy for those who carry them out."

State television showed the corpses of the militants, blaming them for a wave of violence against foreigners in the Gulf state, a key U.S. ally and the world's biggest oil exporter.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 26, 2004
(C) All rights reserved